IPOPHL, CHED Tie Up to Integrate IP in Universities and Colleges

Published on September 27, 2019

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has partnered with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in its latest effort to institutionalize intellectual property (IP) learning into the country’s colleges and universities, a move seen to accelerate the commercialization success of innovations and inventions developed in the campuses. 

On Sept. 20, Friday, IPOPHL Director-General Josephine R. Santiago and CHED J. Prospero E. De Vera III signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) where laid down are objectives aimed at significantly scaling up the country’s educational ecosystem to be more responsive to the needs of creative and innovative students. 

Toward this goal, in the succeeding months, the team of experts from IPOPHL and CHED will begin to integrate IP modules into relevant courses such as Science, Technology, Literature, Music, the Arts, Mass Communications, Humanities, and Business. 

Pursuant to the MOA, the IP Academy, IPOPHL's education and training unit, will also offer a General IP Course which universities and colleges can offer as an elective.

To be made available as a pre-thesis course, the General IP course will provide the missing link between research and technology development and commercialization, as well as strengthen the foundation of young minds. 

"A research output, beyond theoretical use in the academic discipline, is most potent to have a lasting societal and economic impact," DG Santiago said. 

IPOPHL and CHED aim to open their first IP elective course and integrate IP modules into relevant courses starting the school year 2020-2021.

"The greater inclusion of IP in the higher education is a momentous achievement for IPOPHL. This marks only the beginning of more aggressive strides in demystifying and mainstreaming IP in the campuses," DG Santiago added.