NIC needs to accelerate innovation effort

MANILA, Philippines — Efforts to boost innovation in the country by the National Innovation Council (NIC) need to be accelerated as the Philippines recently dropped eight spots in a global innovation ranking, according to the chief of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).

In a statement, IPOPHL director general Rowel Barba lamented the Philippines slipping to the 59th spot from the 51st Global Innovation Index (GII) of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

This is the country’s second consecutive drop in the global ranking following its 50th spot in 2020.

“We regret to see the decline of the Philippines in the 2022 Global Innovation Index (GII). Our slide of eight rungs is most alarming.

This calls for the urgent task of accelerating work at the National Innovation Council (NIC) to sustain innovation over time,” Barba said.

Barba attributed the drop to the double-digit decreases on the education and tertiary education sub-indicators under the human capital and knowledge creation and knowledge impact sub-indicators under knowledge and technology outputs, and creative goods and services sub-indicator under creative outputs.

For sub-indicators related to intellectual property (IP), the top laggards were industrial designs (ID), where the country fell 10 spots in ranking, followed by cultural and creative services exports, down nine spots; utility models (UM), down seven spots; patent families, down seven spots; university-industry R&D collaboration, down three spots; and trademarks, down three spots.

“We would like to note that the decline in ID, UM and trademarks may be due to the fact that the report based its data on 2020 when IPOPHL saw a decline in application across all types of IP due to the COVID-19 pandemic,”Barba said.

He added that these drops cumulatively totaled to be the biggest decline in filing activities throughout IPOPHL’s 25-year in office.

“In promoting the export of our cultural and creative services, IPOPHL commits to engage more proactively with our creative economy and ensure yielding positive outcomes from the creatives-based partnerships we have been forging over the years. We also see the recently legislated Creative Industries Development Act as providing a boost to bring our creative genius to the global stage,” Barba said.

He explained that the agency’s innovation and technology support office (ITSO) program can also help strengthen collaborations between businesses and create IP assets that are truly relevant and useful to industry and the market.

“We have come a long way in capacitating our 77 ITSOs in using patent databases for filling in today’s technology gaps, as well as bringing ITSOs’ inventions and innovations closer toward industry development and commercialization,” Barba said.

To expand the base of ITSOs, Barba said IPOPHL is planning to invite more universities and colleges into the fold by creating a program for those wanting to start their innovation and technology transfer offices.

Meanwhile, Barba pointed out that a bright spot is IP-related driving indicators such as national feature films, where the country rose 29 spots, printing and other media, up 17 spots, mobile app creation, five spots; patents, up four spots, and PCT families, up four spots.

“We will definitely intensify our work in creating an environment that stimulates creative and innovative activities through promoting IP protection and creating a robust enforcement regime,” Barba said.