Patent registration in the Philippines. The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic island country in Southeast Asia. The Philippines is considered to be an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, which has an economy transitioning from being based on agriculture to being based more on services and manufacturing. In addition, the country has a variety of natural resources and a globally significant level of biodiversity. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in the Philippines.
Patent in Philippines
According to Philippines law, a patent in Philippines is a grant of a property right given by the Government to an inventor. With a patent, the inventor, or the patentee will have the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling the invention in a country, or importing the invention into a country, along with other rights to protect their best interests.
The right to a patent in this country belongs to the inventor, his/her heirs, or assigns. When two or more persons have jointly made an invention, the right to a patent belongs to them jointly.
To be patentable in Philippines, an invention must satisfy the new, nonobvious, inventive, and industrially applicable requirements.
In addition, an invention that is patentable can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
On the other hand, the unpatentable subjects in The Philippines are:
- Discoveries, laws of nature, and mathematical methods;
- Aesthetic designs;
- Systems, rules, and methods for the performance of mental labor, games or management, computer programs;
- Presentation of data and abstract ideas.
Necessary documents for patent registration in the Philippines
The necessary documents for patent registration in the Philippines include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s and inventor’s names, addresses, citizenships, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any);
- Other required documents.
The procedure for patent registration in the Philippines
To obtain a patent in the Philippines, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Philippines.
The patent application will first undergo a formal examination to check if it complies with the requirements of the law.
It should be noted that the substantive examination in the Philippines is not automatic. The applicant needs to file a request for the substantive examination within 6 months from the publication date.
The application shall be deemed withdrawn if such request is not made and the fees are not timely paid.
In the Philippines, the patent has a 20 years validity period from the filing date.
The patentee needs to pay annuities regularly to maintain the protection period.
The first annual fee must be paid on the expiration of 4 years from the date of publication of the application in the IPOPHL E-Gazette. Subsequent annual fees shall be due on each subsequent anniversary of such date.
If the applicant wants to expand the protection scope, they can register their patent through the PCT.
Registering through the PCT not only grants protection in the Philippines but also to every contracting state of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT. The PCT is managed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
The international application allows for a single patent application, valid for several countries, in a single language, and with a single publication.
You can see a list of the Philippines IP firms here.