It’s so good, ITSO AFI

With the World Property Organization’s (WIPO) agenda to foster the development of appropriate, effective, and sustainable technology and innovation support services, WIPO Director, Dr. Francis Gurry, graced the launch of the Philippine network of Innovation and Technology Support Offices (ITSO) last March 22, 2012 at The Peninsula Manila.  The High-Level Forum on Access to Global Technology event which ran from March 22-23 was spear-headed by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines for the launch of 39 ITSO Institutions, with Ayala Foundation TBI being one of them. These ITSOs or patent libraries are geared as IPOPHL’s extended institutions for the protection of IP and the development of a balanced and accessible intellectual property that will boost the Philippine economy through the safeguarding of our own innovations.

The Director General of IPOPHL, Mr. Ricardo R. Blancaflor also announced a new incentive pegged as Juan’s Thousand Inventions that will waive the patent filing and license maintenance fees for the first 1,000 innovations as a support to our Filipino investors. Mr. Blancaflor and the rest of the IP enthusiasts believes that this program will indeed encourage patent activity as well as further address the digital divide and knowledge gap within the country.

So now that Ayala Foundation TBI has been formally launched as one of the ITSOs, why not allow us to help Filipino innovators to a wide range of services that would help them benefit effectively from increased accessibility offered by internet searches through direct assistance and increase local technological base by building up local know-how.

AFI ITSO ON THE WAY!

In the Philippines, as with other third-world countries, innovators and start-up business entrepreneurs do not fully recognize the importance of the patent system for their inventions.  Usually it is because the country lacks the technical expertise or has not engaged in a much vigilant campaign of promoting awareness to the target clientele – engineers, scientists, research & development institutions, small & medium-sized enterprises, and the likes. This year, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPhil) set out to increase the level of appreciation for the utilization of IP by partnering with different institutions and giving the necessary support and guidance.

It is in this light that Ayala Foundation under its Entrepreneurship Group will soon be considered as one of the country’s accredited Innovation & Technology Support Office (patent libraries) or ITSO for short.

What is basically encompassed by an AFI ITSO?

Its service will include patentability search, which reviews prior art in the relevant technical field to determine if an invention fulfills the requirements of novelty and inventiveness. As an ITSO, it will also provide infringement or freedom-to-operate search and analysis, which seeks to determine if a particular technology, be it an apparatus, product or process, would likely infringe any patents owned by others. Its database access will be the Thomson Innovation.  We would also be offering the service of assisting inventors in the likes of preparing the patent specification wherein the description of the invention and the listing of claims are being prepared. An inventor would also be assisted as he moves forth with the patent application, whether it is a national filing or an international filing under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which includes 143 countries.

In the years ahead, AFI ITSO may also offer various types of IP management services, including commercialization and licensing support. And as a part of our advocacy to promote the use of patent information and protection of innovation through patents, AFI ITSO would also work on the provision of skills training to increase awareness of its ITSO and promote these services to the target audience.

The AFI ITSO team comprised of the AyalaTBI staff is currently undergoing training by the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), IPO Philippines and the EU assisted Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) Project.