The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) designated the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) as a competent International Searching Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority (ISA/IPEA) as an expression of confidence in the Philippine agency’s capabilities.
“To gain the trust of one of the world’s top five IP offices and frontrunners in innovation is a groundbreaking feat for IPOPHL,” said IPOPHL director-general Rowel Barba in a statement after the signing ceremony at the USPTO headquarters on March 6.
IPOPHL joins a select group of major IP offices with the recent designation, including the Korean Intellectual Property Office, European Patent Office, Japan Patent Office, IP Australia, IP Office of Singapore and Israel Patent Office.
IPOPHL said it has been working to streamline and harmonize quality management policies to ensure the accuracy, comprehensiveness and timeliness of our search and examination reports after becoming an ISA/IPEA in 2017.
“This recognition is a reward for that hard work, and we are ready to take on the additional workload. We expect more countries to designate IPOPHL and more inventors to utilize our ISA/IPEA services,” Barba said.
Member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) unanimously endorsed IPOPHL as an ISA/IPEA in 2017. The designation allows IPOPHL to conduct searches and preliminary examinations of applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). IPOPHL began operating as an ISA/IPEA in May 2019.
As an ISA/IPEA, IPOPHL issues international search reports that identify the patent documents and technical literature as relevant prior art and draws up a written opinion that details how these prior art may affect an invention’s patentability.
Applicants can then amend their applications based on the findings and request an international preliminary examination for further analysis.
