Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) agreed to assist the Brunei Darussalam IP Office (BruIPO) on plans to extend its search and examination services to its patent applications.
“This is the first time another IP office has outsourced IPOPHL for a core service. This shows increased confidence in the efficiency of our processes and our tested and proven expertise in emerging technologies after over 76 years of conducting patent search and examination,” said IPOPHL director-general Rowel Barba, noting the first patent office in the Philippines was established in 1947 through Republic Act 165.
IPOPHL and BruIPO signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in December 2023 for the outsourcing agreement.
The MOU requires IPOPHL’s Bureau of Patents to conduct re-examination, provide opinions in response to an opposition over an amendment to a patent and extend capacity-building activities to help BruIPO adopt international best practices in patent search and examination.
IPOPHL will process a maximum of 200 applications a year from BruIPO over the next five years.
Barba said that in the entire ASEAN, the Philippines offers one of the fastest turnaround time from application to grant or refusal and is the first to establish a Patent Quality Review System that gained IPOPHL’s patent search and examination services a high rating of compliance with international standards.
“We are delighted that our first-ever client is no less than a friend in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations which, like the Philippines, is aiming to sustain its momentum to recover from the pandemic. We hope this partnership will create more wins for innovation in the ASEAN and serve as a global model for collaborations with meaningful outcomes,” Barba said.
Brunei Darussalam has been witnessing an increasingly vibrant innovation scene in IP rights.