Philippine Intellectual Property Code

Headed by a Director General and assisted by two Deputies Director General.
Comprises six bureaus: Patents, Trademarks, Legal Affairs, Documentation/Information and Technology Transfer, Management Information System and EDP, Administrative/Financial/Personnel.
Officers appointed by the President or Secretary of Trade and Industry.
Director General exercises appellate and original jurisdiction over IPO matters.
Leadership must meet qualifications including citizenship, age, education, integrity, and legal expertise.

Patentable inventions must be new, involve an inventive step, and be industrially applicable.
Non-patentable subjects include discoveries, scientific theories, methods of treatment, plant varieties, aesthetic creations, and objects against public order or morality.
Novelty assessed against prior art globally and previously published applications.
Inventive step means non-obviousness to a skilled person.

Rights belong to the inventor or their heirs/assigns; joint inventions shared.
"First to file" rule applies to competing inventors.
Specifications for application content: request, description, drawings, claims, abstract.
Non-residents must appoint a local agent.
Applications published 18 months after filing for public inspection, with rights conferred post-publication.
Substantive examination requested within six months of publication.

Exclusive rights to make, use, sell, or import patented products or processes.
Limitations include use of marketed products, private/non-commercial use, experimental use, preparation of medicine, and temporary use in foreign vehicles.
Prior users before filing may continue use.
Government may use a patent without consent in national interest or anti-competitive practices.
Infringement remedies include damages, injunctions, destruction of infringing goods, and criminal penalties for repeated violations.

Technology transfer arrangements regulated to promote competition and prevent abuse.
Certain practices are prohibited, e.g., price fixing, territorial restrictions, and undue royalties.
Mandatory contract provisions include governing law, arbitration venue, and continued access to improvements.
Exceptional cases allow exemptions evaluated by IPO.

Granted under circumstances like national emergency, public interest, anti-competitive practices, non-working of patents.
Must attempt to obtain license on reasonable terms first, except in emergency cases.
Terms include non-exclusive, non-assignable license focused on Philippine market.
License decisions can be amended or canceled based on circumstances.

Patents and applications treated as property
Assignments must be in writing, notarized, and recorded with IPO.
Joint owners have rights to use but require consent for licenses or assignments.

Utility models are protected if new and industrially applicable, without inventive step requirement.
Utility model registration lasts 7 years, non-renewable.
Industrial designs must be new and not dictated by technical function.
Industrial design registration lasts 5 years, renewable twice.
Provisions on registration, examination, and cancellation similar to patents.

Marks include trademarks, service marks, collective marks, trade names.
Registrability excludes immoral, deceptive, identical or confusingly similar marks, generic signs, or marks contrary to public order.
Well-known marks receive broader protection.

Applications must contain identification, designation of goods/services, and may cover multiple classes.
Priority rights recognized based on foreign filings.
Examination includes registrability and opposition periods.
Licenses require quality control provisions and must be recorded.
Renewal every 10 years with actual use requirement.

Protects original intellectual creations including literary, artistic, audiovisual works, and computer programs.
Derivative works such as translations and adaptations also protected.
Excludes ideas, facts, official texts, and government works (with conditions).

Economic rights cover reproduction, adaptation, distribution, rental, public display, performance, and communication.
Moral rights include attribution, integrity, and withdrawal rights lasting lifetime plus 50 years post mortem.
Ownership rules specify author, joint authors, employers, and commissioned works.

Certain uses exempted from infringement, including private performances, quotations, educational use, and library reproductions.
Fair use considers purpose, nature, amount, and market effect.

Exclusive rights to authorize use, reproduction, distribution, and communication of performances, sound recordings, and broadcasts.
Performers have moral rights to attribution and integrity.
Additional remuneration for subsequent communications.
Limitations apply for personal use, teaching, and reporting.

Copyright lasts life of author plus fifty years.
Joint works protected until fifty years after last surviving author.
Performers and producers have protection terms varying from 20 to 50 years depending on performance and broadcast type.

Injunctions, damages, impounding and destruction of infringing copies/materials.
Criminal penalties include imprisonment and fines, escalating with repeat offenses.
Presumptions in evidence include authorship and copyright ownership.