A total of 15 technologies in Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) region have applied for grant of a patent at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said on Thursday, July 15.

This was the result of a five-day workshop launched by the DOST-Mimaropa to “encourage Intellectual Property (IP) protection of research outputs generated by state university and colleges (SUCs) and to facilitate technology transfer activities.”

A total of 53 faculty researchers and Technology Transfer Officers (TTOs) from six SUCs in Mimaropa attended the virtual Patent Search and Patent Drafting workshop

The workshop “aimed to educate Mimaropa SUCs to effectively protect their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) through the proper preparation of patent specifications and claims,” the DOST-Mimaropa said. It zeroed in on various topics which include patent search report, invention spotting matrix, drafting of claims, and drafting the whole patent specifications of respective technologies.

The training was facilitated by experts from the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the Intellectual Property Management Office of the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College.

“At the end of the activity, 15 technologies were filed for patent at the IPOPHL, and eight more technologies are expected to be filed in the coming days,” the DOST-Mimaropa said.

DOST-Mimaropa Regional Director Dr. Ma. Josefina P. Abilay cited “the importance of getting IP protection for R&D (research and development) outputs or technologies and having them commercialized amid the pandemic.”

Anastacio Cagabhion III, a participant from the Western Philippines University thanked the DOST for organizing the online workshop.

“I hope that more trainings like this would be provided to SUCs to capacitate its faculty/researchers,” he said.

The DOST-Mimaropa said on the first day, the resource speakers discussed the importance of patent information and patent documents, and the patent search strategies and various free patent databases that can be used.

"It was followed by invention spotting matrix on the second day and drafting of claims according to the rules and guidelines of patent drafting on the third day. Drafted claims by the participants were enhanced with the assistance of the resource persons in accordance with the formality requirement of the IPOHL during the fourth day,” it said.

On the last leg of the workshop, the participants were briefed on online filing of technology at the IPOPHL website.