IPOPHL to ink pact with US patent office

MANILA, Philippines - The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is set to sign an agreement with the US Patent and Trademark Office that will facilitate patent work sharing between the two countries.

In a telephone interview yesterday, IPOPHL director general Ricardo Blancaflor said that his office is currently in discussions with counterparts in the US for an agreement for a patent prosecution highway (PPH).

“We are in discussion with the US for a PPH. The US has also expressed interest in having one with us,” he said.

He said no date has been set for forging the agreement yet as both countries still have to learn the processes in filing applications for patents.

He also said that the PPH agreement to be signed with the US may be similar to the PPH agreement signed by the Philippines with the Japan Patent Office recently.

The Philippines’ PPH with Japan, he said, took effect in March.

“Under the PPH, it becomes easier for filers for patents to go through the application process in the two countries,” he said.

According to the Japan Patent Office’s website, the PPH allows an applicant whose claims have been determined to be patentable in the Office of First Filing to go through an accelerated examination in the Office of Second Filing upon request from the applicant based on the agreement.

Blancaflor noted that apart from the Philippines, the only ASEAN country with a PPH agreement with Japan is Singapore.

“But the other ASEAN countries are also looking to enter into similar agreements with Japan,” he said.

In a related development, the IPOPHL said in a statement that the head of the IPO of Japan signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) on Industrial Property with the IPOs of ASEAN member states and the Japan Patent Office.

Blancaflor said that the MoC would be beneficial to all ASEAN countries as it would involve information sharing as well as training between the countries on trademarks and patents.

According to Pajchima Tanasanti, chair of the ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation and director general of the Department of Intellectual Property, Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, the signing of the MoC on Industrial Property would pave the way for further cooperation between ASEAN and Japan in the field of trademarks, industrial designs, patents, and utility models.

For his part, Japan Patent Office commissioner Yoshiyuki Iwai said that the MOC would enhance the capabilities of both the ASEAN and Japan in terms of industrial property protection systems, transparent and streamlined examination procedures and practices, industrial property administration, industrial property exploitation by the private sector, and awareness of industrial property.

Among the priority activities for the implementation of the agreement are the conduct of a study on Japanese small and medium enterprises which were successful in IP commercialization that could be applied to ASEAN as well as a workshop on establishment of information technology infrastructure for sharing information on patent examination.