Global Patent GO ASEAN: Philippines——Introduction to Patent Application in the Philippines

Southeast Asian tiger tiger Philippines

The Philippines is one of the founding members of ASEAN, close to the geographical center of East Asia, and has historically been one of the hubs of regional and global trade. Barter trade with its Asian neighbors was already active during Spanish rule. Since the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Philippines has maintained a long-term economic growth through a series of measures such as reforming the financial system, improving the tax system, and expanding domestic demand and export methods. Before the outbreak of the global new crown epidemic in early 2020, the Philippine economy had achieved 84 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted growth. In recent years, the political situation in the Philippines has been stable, and the world's three major investment rating agencies have successively upgraded the Philippine sovereign credit registration to investment grade. Foreign capital is more optimistic about the Philippine economy and market prospects. In 2019, China's investment in the Philippines increased by 80% year-on-year, making it the Philippines' largest trading partner, largest source of imports, and third largest export market. The contract value of Chinese enterprises contracting projects in the Philippines increased by 40% year-on-year. With the in-depth advancement of the ASEAN Economic Community and the implementation of the "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure construction plan in the Philippines, the two sides have broad prospects and huge space for cooperation in agriculture, energy, manufacturing, infrastructure construction, tourism and other fields.

In terms of intellectual property rights, there were legal measures for intellectual property rights long before the sovereignty of the Philippines was independent, and these measures were consistent with the laws and regulations of the United States. In 1997, the Philippines promulgated the Intellectual Property Code (RA8293) and established the Intellectual Property Office. The Philippines joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1980, the WTO in 1995, and the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2001. The Philippines has also formed alliances with international organizations such as Action Against Counterfeiting and Piracy to combat criminal counterfeiting, as documented in the USTR 2016 Special Report. All these initiatives have enhanced the Philippines' standing in terms of intellectual property rights. The Philippines is now gradually becoming one of the major countries in the field of intellectual property in the ASEAN region. Today we will briefly introduce the patent application system in the Philippines.

Introduction to the Philippine Patent System

1. Types of Patent Protection in the Philippines

The types of protection stipulated in the Philippine Patent Law include invention patents, utility model patents and design patents.

2. Paths for Chinese applicants to apply for patents in the Philippines

Paris Convention, PCT International Application Entry into the Philippines, Direct Application

3. Review unit

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, IPOPHL, is a government agency under the Department of Trade and Industry responsible for IP registration and IP conflict resolution in the Philippines. The Philippine government's vision in the field of intellectual property was a demystified, development-oriented and democratized system. The Philippine Intellectual Property Office also put forward its own tasks, to be committed to economic, technological and social and cultural development, through communication, to promote and ensure the effective use of the intellectual property system at all levels of society to create, protect, utilize and enforce intellectual property rights . IPOPHL became the ISRing Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority on October 5, 2017. IPOPHL recently launched the "Business Intelligence Online Platform", which integrates cutting-edge machine learning, artificial intelligence and advanced analysis functions into its own big data system, aiming to integrate patent data held by the Philippine government into a single platform Among them, improving the transparency, accessibility and understandability of government agency data. Thanks to IPOPHL, one of the first government agencies in the Philippines to convert its core business to an online model, the number of intellectual property applications received by the Philippine Patent Office in the first half of 2021 has increased by 20% over the same period.

4. Submit your application

1) Deadline requirement: IPOPHL does not recognize priority restoration

- via Paris Convention : within 12 months from the earliest priority date

- PCT international application entered into the Philippines: within 30 months from the earliest priority date (can be extended to 31 months)

2) Language requirements: the official language of the Philippine patent application is Filipino or English

3) Application method: You can submit a paper application to the IPO or submit an application online

5. Formal examination

If the filing date is determined and the applicant has not withdrawn the application, IPOPHL shall examine whether the application complies with the formal requirements prescribed by law. To file a patent application in the Philippines, an original Power of Attorney signed by the applicant is required. In addition, it should be noted that when a Chinese applicant submits a patent application through the via Paris Convention or the direct application route, he needs to go through the confidentiality review procedures with the Chinese Patent Office in advance.

6. Disclosure procedure

After the application passes the formality examination, IPOPHL will search and classify the patent application, and the patent application documents and official search results will be published in the IPOPHL Gazette within 18 months from the filing date or priority date. After the application has been published, anyone can make written comments on the patentability of the invention, which are sent to the applicant, who can respond to them. This is different from the public opinion procedure in our country. The public opinion in our country is not conveyed to the applicant, but only for the reference of the substantive examiner. The public opinion is not conveyed to the applicant, so the applicant has no way to reply.

7. Substantive examination procedure

The applicant can submit a request for substantive examination at the same time as the application, or within 6 months from the date of publication. If the request is not submitted within the time limit, the application will be deemed withdrawn. After receiving the applicant's request for substantive examination, IPOPHL will conduct search and examination independently. There is a joint examination agreement between the United States and the Philippines. Once the relevant case is authorized by the United States, if the applicant amends the Claim of the Philippine application to the Claim of the patent granted by the United States, the Philippine Patent Office will directly issue an granted decision. In addition, applicants can also request to use search or examination results from other ASPEC member states to expedite the examination process of Indonesian patent applications.

8. Authorization procedure

After the patent has passed the substantive examination procedure, if the examiner believes that the conditions for granted are met, a letter of granted will be issued. The applicant can obtain the patent certificate after paying the authorized registrar's fee within the specified period.

9. Patent enforcement obligations

After obtaining the patent right in the Philippines, the patentee is obliged to implement the patent right in the Philippines for a period of 4 years from the date of application or 3 years from the date of patent granted, whichever expires later. For patent rights that have not been implemented within the time limit, anyone can request for compulsory granted on the grounds that the patent has not been implemented.

Advantages of Philippine Patents

1. An invention patent application can be converted into a utility model patent application before it is authorized or receives a rejection notice. Although there is substantive examination for utility model patent applications, the examination standard is lower than that for invention patents, and no inventiveness is required, and the examination period can be shortened to about 6 months accordingly.

2. In the Philippines, applicants are divided into large entities and small entities. The official fees of small entities can be reduced by half, which greatly saves the application cost of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Friendliness to Chinese applicants:

★★★★

Gold content of patent rights:

★★★

The degree of perfection of the rights protection mechanism:

★★★