IF THERE is no intellectual property protection obtained by an inventor, artist, scientist or gifted individual for an intellectual creation or property, somebody else might obtain the protection for it allowing competitors to take advantage and the possibility of licensing, selling or transferring the technology to another.
Intellectual Property Field Operations Specialist Jeanne Dugui-es stressed this to members of the Committee on Indigenous Peoples Concerns of the Regional Development Council in her briefing on Republic Act 8293, or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.
Intellectual property is defined as a legal concept which refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized, Dugui-es said. Although there is an increasing awareness of protecting intellectual properties, there is still low awareness and understanding on its value across all sectors in the country.
It is not yet fully mainstreamed or integrated in socio-economic policies and programs of different government agencies, she said.
Dugui-es explained that protection of intellectual property grants exclusivity and prevents competitors from copying a technology or product.
It also creates and enhances corporate identity, facilitates negotiations on licensing, franchising or other intellectual property-based agreements, and it avoids wasteful investment in research and development and marketing.
Intellectual property may be acquired on assets owned individually or by a group categorized as physical or intangible asset, according to Dugui-es.
Physical or tangible assets include buildings, machineries, financial and infrastructures while intangible assets ranges from human capital, know-how to ideas, brands, designs, and other intangible fruits of company’s creative and innovative capacity.
Intellectual property rights come in different forms such as copyright and related rights, trade/service mark, patent, utility model, Industrial design, and lay-out design of integrated circuits.
Copyright she said is a protection for original expression which exists at the moment of creation such as literary, artistic, scholarly and scientific creations and extends to derivative works.
On the other hand, a trademark is any visible sign capable of distinguishing goods or services of an enterprise stamped and marked in containers.
A patent is a grant issued by the government giving an inventor the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using, importing, and offering for sale the product of his invention such as useful machine, product, process, micro-organism, non-biological and microbiological processes.
A utility model is a technical or functional improvement of an existing product or technology. It is new and industrially capable.
An industrial design meanwhile is any composition of lines or colors or any dimensional form which serves as pattern to an industrial product or handicraft.
A lay-out design of integrated circuits for it to acquire intellectual property rights must have original topography or special arrangement with elements of an integrated circuit and intended for manufacture.
There are corresponding fees on the type of registration the creation or property falls under, she said as she informed that their Intellectual Property Baguio Satellite Office is located at Carino Street with phone number (074) 442-7859. (Susan Aro)