Fee Waiver Program for Applicants in the Philippines

The Philippines began implementing the NIPS plan, the National Intellectual Property Strategy, in 2024. The establishment of NIPS is a historic development in the Philippines' innovation and creativity system. As the main institution for intellectual property protection, IPOPHL focuses on the overall inclusive vision of the intellectual property system, namely, to achieve "an effective intellectual property system that is widely recognized and strategically used to benefit and improve the lives of the Filipino people." Specifically, the main goals include:

• Ensuring a strong, predictable and efficient IP system and enforceable intellectual property rights (IPR);
• Improve knowledge production, innovation performance and strengthen productive links with industry through ITSO partners, colleges, universities and RDIs;
• Develop a culture of innovation, creativity and respect for IP by integrating IP into education systems and key sectors;
• Enhance the productivity of IP in specific priority industries;
• Consider improving certain areas of IPOPHL operations and other government agencies in addressing the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR);
• To promote the effective use of the intellectual property system as a tool for economic, cultural and scientific development.

To this end, IPOPHL provides a fee reduction policy for small entities and young applicants for intellectual property applicants, providing a 50% fee reduction for small entities and young applicants. Among them, small entity qualification is defined as:

• A natural person or legal entity with assets valued at RMB 100 million or less
• Any entity, agency, office, bureau or instrumentality of the Philippine Government, including government-owned or controlled corporations, state universities and colleges, and government-owned or government-operated schools.

Young applicants:

• A natural person or a group of natural persons who are not yet or all of them are not yet 22 years of age at the time of submitting the application.
• Prior to submitting their online application, applicants should apply for a certificate from the Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer Bureau (DITTB) confirming their status as a youth applicant in order to enjoy the relevant benefits.
• The request form must be submitted with the following documents:
  • a) Any government-issued identification (ID) card such as driver's license, passport, voter ID card, postal ID card, etc.; or
  • b) Any school or company photo identification card and a copy of the birth certificate issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO)/Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
  • c) Institutional applicants with young inventors, designers and entrepreneurs, the application form must be signed by an authorized official and accompanied by any documents corresponding to the relevant young inventors, designers and entrepreneurs.
  • d) The DITTB certification should be submitted as an attachment to the online application.

For applications submitted between September 1, 2023 and December 31, 2024,

• Invention (Php 2,000)
• Utility Model (Php 1,720.00), not more than 5 claims
• Industrial Design (Php 1,720.00), no more than 10 images
• Trademark application (Php 1,200.00), including color protection declaration fee (Php 280.00)
• Initial Publication Fee (Php 920.00)
• Invention Examination Fee (Php 2,010.00)
• 1st and 2nd year annual fees for inventions (Php 1,550.00 and Php 2,000.00 respectively)
• If the applicant is an institution, they will not be eligible for the fee waiver even if there is a youth applicant as a co-applicant.

At the same time, IPOPHL provides technical assistance and capacity building for patent applicants. Young and institutional applicants have made requests to DITTB and IPOPHL for technical advice and capacity building on IP commercialization and management, including:

• Assistance with preliminary assessment of the formalities of patent applications before they are filed; and
• Assistance in filing international applications under the PCT Filing Assistance Program
• Institutional applicants applying together with young applicants can enjoy technical consultation and capacity building