By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net
AS it celebrates its 20th anniversary, the Department of Science and Technology–Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology (DOST-PCASTRD) is setting its sights on strengthening the patent capabilities of the local scientific and engineering communities.
So far, the Philippines has produced a few patented technologies based from DOST-funded researches but the PCASTRD is looking to encourage more scientists to file patents as well as market these technologies to potential investors or business partners for use in different industries.
PCASTRD showcased seven supported projects, including a titanium nitride material coating process applicable for almost all large-scale industries, such as aeronautics and automobile manufacturing. This project was conducted by University of the Philippines Diliman professor Henry Ramos who was just awarded a patent from Taiwan last March and is in the process of acquiring patents in Singapore, Malaysia, the US and Europe.
A more recently approved patent was also an image-processing project from UP Diliman that involves combining an industrial-grade optical beam-induced imaging with confocal reflectance microscopy. Developed by UP Diliman researchers Cesar Saloma, Vincent Daria and Jelda Miranda, their project, whose patent was approved in the US on June 26, is aimed largely at the semiconductor industry and is useful for failure analysis in electronics components.
A third patented Filipino technology was from engineer Hilary De Leon who created a flight data recorder with wireless data retrieval. In simpler terms, it could enhance the way information is recorded and distributed in an aircraft and can be incorporated in current “black boxes” or flight recording modules.
During a press conference, PCASTRD Executive Director Reynaldo Ebora said the agency has been working with academic institutions that have strong research and development laboratories in an effort to get scientists to file patents.
One of the latest projects of the DOST is a partnership with the Ayala Foundation that resulted in the creation of the Labtech Network, an online database of laboratory service providers and equipment suppliers that can be used by engineers and scientists to find relevant facilities and equipment for their researches. The Labtech Network would also serve as a database of patentable research materials useful to entrepreneurs and potential investors.
Ebora noted that the agency is working with universities nationwide that have laboratories or research facilities to convince researchers and engineers to pursue their projects and file patents. He admitted that volumes of research are available in the Philippines but few of their authors would want to pursue patents.
In particular is the concept of “publish or perish” wherein scientists must publish their work in scientific journals to showcase their work and then follow up with a patent.
“One of the measurements of good scientific capability is the number of published works. The more research published, there would be more opportunities of commercially-viable projects being patented,” Ebora said.
Ayala Foundation executive vice president Bill Luz said another measurement of a country’s economic prowess is the number of patents filed by a country. These patented technologies should also become actual products that can generate revenues.
“That’s the purpose of Labtech; to get more private sector involvement in making patented technologies to generate income,” Luz said.
Meanwhile, Ebora said the DOST-PCASTRD has laid out their 20th anniversary program for the year, which includes seminars and forums on several topics. There would be campaigns on forensic DNA technology for legal practitioners, biotechnology roundtable discussions, disaster management, and space technology applications research, among others.
The discussions will start in August and end in December.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Good thing I came across this entry co’z some concerns raised here are partly included in a proposed measure pending in Congress in third reading authored by Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya. House Bill 3270 or the Technology Transfer Act (“An Act Providing the Framework and Support System for the Ownership, Management, Use, and Commercialization of Intellectual Property Rights Derived from R&D Funded by Government”) basically defines ownership of technologies, allows incentives and equity in revenues among stakeholders, ensures intellectual property protection, and allows creation of spin off companies to hasten commercialization of mature and potential technologies among others. Refer to PCARRD’s website: http://www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph for details and updates of the Bill.
August 6th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
[...] Inside Science : DOST agency eyes more commercially viable RP patents [...]
August 5th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I am 100% sure that publications of lab research work academic or in industry will necessarily will lead to patents - I have worked with Dr.Vince, Dr.Saloma and Ms.Jelda Miranda when at NIP and was part of the team that derived two more system from their original work. Now, I am back in industry work I know a handful of engineers who does Finite Element Analysis for package designs in semiconductor industry whose work is also US patented (Filipino engineers working at Fairchild semiconductors, also at Texas Instruments in Baguio) sadly you can count in with your fingers who is able to cut it here - most if not all are working for multinational companies whose standards are always based on competitive advantage and technology/product differentiation goal based. Our engineering professors must demonstrate that they can read and write peer reviewed journals and simply not engage in just consulting projects where they can’t publish but simply earn from it.
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:36 pm
[...] Inside Science : DOST agency eyes more commercially viable RP patents [...]
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:27 am
Things to consider:
First, not all scientists and inventors are good marketers.
Second, how much does an international patent cost? Last I heard it was along P 15,000
Third, not all scientists and inventors are well versed in filing for patents nor know the bureaucratic intricacies of this.
The relevant question is, how does the DOST make the environment of filing for patents, cost of filing, and marketing be conducive or attractive to scientists and inventors?
What are the legal free support services are available to the scientist and inventor in case there is patent infringement?
An inventor I knew once filed for a local patent for a locally successful invention. Later there was patent infringement in another nation and he henceforth filed for an international patent.
There is however a stupid law that says that once you patent an invention locally, the inventor must file for an international patent (for additional cost) within ONE year otherwise the international patent is null and void. He did not know about this rule till later and therefore forfeited his international patent rights.
Later, a local company made a patent infringement in this country. The poor inventor now had to hire a lawyer to file charges against this high financed company who has a LOT of money to hire batteries of Class A lawyers.
So now DOST, what service can you give to the hard up Filipino inventor and scientists who encounter the same situation.
It seems in this column is that you are passing the buck back to the scientists by doing all these things in broad stroke suggestions while not fixing the support system of these inventors nor able to do away with the patent fees.
Current patenting is far easier now than a decade ago thanks to the computer and the internet. Given better system efficiencies, the cost for patent filing could easily be cut half and even cheaply subsidized by government.
So DOST, what would you as an institution REALLY personally do about this and help out our scientists and inventors in a practical and systemic manner?