Key State Policies on Intellectual Property
- 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.
Rights and Reciprocity under International Conventions
- Nationals or entities of countries party to relevant treaties enjoy reciprocal rights in the Philippines.
Definitions Related to Intellectual Property
- Intellectual property rights encompass copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial designs, etc.
- Technology transfer includes agreements on sharing systematic knowledge and licensing intellectual property.
IPO Director General and Deputies
- 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.
Functions of IPO Bureaus
- 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.
Fees and Financial Autonomy
- IPO retains all fees, fines, royalties collected for operational use.
- After five years, IPO may cease to receive government budget if fees suffice.
Patent Laws: General Provisions
- 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.
Patent Application Process
- 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.
Rights and Enforcement
- 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.
Voluntary and Compulsory Licensing
- 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.
Assignment and Transmission of Rights
- 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 and Industrial Designs
- 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.
Trademarks and Service Marks
- 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.
Copyright
- 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.
Institutional and Miscellaneous Provisions
- 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.