Question & AnswerQ&A (Republic Act No. 10055)
The official short title is the "Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009."
The main objective is to promote and facilitate the transfer, dissemination, and effective use, management, and commercialization of intellectual property, technology, and knowledge resulting from government-funded research and development (R&D) for the benefit of the national economy and taxpayers.
In general, the ownership of intellectual property rights derived and generated from research funded by Government Funding Agencies (GFAs) is vested in the Research and Development Institute or Institution (RDI) that actually performed the research, except under specific circumstances stated in the law.
Ownership can be transferred to the GFA if the RDI has entered a public written agreement assigning or waiving its ownership; the RDI fails to disclose potential IPRs; the RDI fails to initiate protection of potential IPRs within a reasonable time; or the RDI ceases to be a Filipino corporation as defined by the law.
The GFA must protect government interests in IPs generated from funded R&D, monitor the RDI's efforts in securing IP protection and commercialization, ensure freedom to use IP for further research, allow revenue sharing that does not hinder commercialization, and can assume commercialization under specified conditions with required recommendations and fairness opinions.
RDIs must identify, protect, and manage IPs generated from government-funded R&D, pursue commercialization diligently, notify GFAs of IPR applications and licenses, report on commercialization progress, keep records of revenue sharing, provide staff incentives, maintain confidentiality on potential IPRs, and inform GFAs of agreements related to funded research.
The RDI shall allow the researcher-employee to commercialize the IP by creating or managing a spin-off company or accepting employment in such a company, subject to a possible leave of absence of up to two years to avoid conflict of interest, with terms ensuring job security and access to facilities.
RDIs are required to adopt guidelines to manage conflicts of interest, ensure researchers remain accountable to the RDI's core mission, forbid certain roles or transactions contradictory to RDI interests, and mandate formal written agreements for collaborations involving spin-off companies.
Revenues from commercialization accrue to the RDI unless otherwise agreed in the research funding agreement, but the government's share must never exceed that of the RDI. In joint funding scenarios, RDIs may make agreements with other funders for revenue sharing. Researcher's shares are governed separately by contracts.
Public RDIs may use their share of revenue as a revolving fund to cover intellectual property management costs and to fund further R&D, capability building, and technology transfer activities, but the funds cannot be used to pay salaries or allowances. Excess income beyond a threshold may be remitted to the Bureau of Treasury, with exceptions for autonomous entities.