Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines

Recognizes intellectual property as vital for development, foreign investment, and technology transfer.
Protects exclusive rights of creators to promote national development.
Emphasizes social functions of intellectual property.
Streamlines registration and enforcement processes.

Nationals or entities of countries party to relevant treaties enjoy reciprocal rights in the Philippines.

Intellectual property rights encompass copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial designs, etc.
Technology transfer includes agreements on sharing systematic knowledge and licensing intellectual property.

Director General manages IPO functions, rules promulgations, and appointment of officers.
Must have legal background and competence.
Exercises appellate and original jurisdiction on IPO decisions and disputes.
Five-year renewable appointments by the President.

Bureau of Patents: handles patent examinations and grants.
Bureau of Trademarks: handles mark registrations and studies.
Bureau of Legal Affairs: adjudicates oppositions, cancellations, complaints; can impose administrative penalties.
Documentation and Technology Transfer Bureau: supports examinations, public education, promotes patent info for technology development.
MIS and EDP Bureau: manages automation and information services.
Administrative, Financial and HR Service Bureau: manages administrative, financial, personnel matters.

Patentable inventions must be new, involve inventive step, and be industrially applicable.
Non-patentable: discoveries, scientific theories, methods of treatment, plant/animal varieties, aesthetic creations, and immoral subject matter.
Novelty assessed against prior art including global disclosures and published applications.
First to file rule governs ownership when inventions are made independently.

Applications must include request, description, claims, drawings, abstract.
Non-resident applicants must appoint Philippine resident agents.
Formal examination, classification, search, and publication occur.
Applicants may request substantive examination within six months after publication.
Patents are granted for twenty years from filing date.
Annual fees must be paid to maintain patent validity.

Patent grants exclusive rights to make, use, sell products or processes.
Limitations include prior sale, private non-commercial use, experimental use, specific medical preparations, and temporary use on foreign vehicles.
Governments may exploit patents without consent under certain conditions.
Infringement results in civil action, damages, injunctions, and possible destruction of infringing materials.
Criminal penalties for repeated infringement.

Licensing arrangements must comply with competition provisions; certain clauses prohibited for adverse effects.
Rights of licensors and licensees defined.
Exceptional cases allow exemptions.
Compulsory licenses granted under grounds like national emergency, anti-competitive practices, or failure to work patents.
Conditions and procedures for compulsory licensing detailed.

Patents and applications treated as property, transferable by assignment, inheritance, or license.
Assignments must be in writing and recorded.
Joint owners may use invention but need consent for licensing or assignment.

Utility models require novelty and industrial applicability but not inventive step.
Registrations valid for 7 years with no renewal.
Industrial designs protect new or original features; registration valid for 5 years, renewable twice.
Provisions for multiple designs in one application, cancellations, and renewals included.

Marks must be registrable and not violate public order, morality, or existing rights.
Rights acquired by valid registration.
Applications require descriptions, indications of goods/services, and possible disclaimers.
Oppositions and hearings provided for.
Registration valid for 10 years, renewable indefinitely.
Owners have exclusive rights to use, assign, license marks.
Protections and remedies for infringement, unfair competition, and false designations articulated.
Criminal penalties for counterfeiting and unfair competition.

Protects original literary, artistic, computer programs, audiovisual works, among others.
Economic rights include reproduction, adaptation, distribution, rental, public display/performance, and communication.
Authors generally own copyrights; special provisions for works of joint authorship, employment, commissions, and audiovisual works.
Moral rights protect attribution and integrity of the work.
Limitations and exceptions such as fair use, education, research, and government use delineated.
Term: life of author plus 50 years, with specific terms for anonymous, applied art, photographs, audiovisual works.
Rights of performers, producers of sound recordings, and broadcasters also protected.
Remedies for infringement include injunction, damages, seizure, destruction; criminal penalties imposed for repeated infringements.

The IPO operates independently with organizational structure and funding arrangements.
Appeals and judicial remedies provided.
Existing rights prior to Act's effectivity preserved.
Repeals prior inconsistent laws but maintains subsisting protections.
Equitable principles may govern IPO proceedings.
Reciprocity in foreign laws applies.
Effective as of January 1, 1998.