IPOPHL enjoins Filipinos to protect industrial designs at Design Week 2025 

October 13, 2025

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines joined the celebration of Design Week Philippines 2025 to raise awareness about industrial design protection and promote the office’s services and initiatives in empowering designers. 

Representing IPOPHL at the opening festivities was Assistant Director Chamlette D. Garcia of the Documentation, Information, and Technology Transfer Bureau. At a panel titled “Creatives’ Intellectual Property Playbook,” Garcia delivered a short lecture explaining the suite of IP protection options for industrial products and the processes and requirements for the protection of industrial designs. 

The lecture included coverage of emerging designs, which include digital interfaces, buildings and interiors, surface ornamentation and articles intended for use as a set. 

Garcia also promoted IPOPHL’s Juana Patent and Juana Design Incentive Program, which the office launched to help women inventors and designers as well as women-led MSMEs and startups in boosting innovation and protecting their IP.  The program is part of IPOPHL’s campaign to make IP protection more accessible to underserved sectors of the Filipino public. 

Under this program, eligible participants may request certain filing fees waived upon applying for IP protection at IPOPHL or its satellite offices around the country. The program will be accepting applications until March 31, 2026. 

Garcia exhorted Filipino designers to avail of IPOPHL’s services and start filing applications to protect their work as a key part of their business strategy. “We can leverage IP to gain a competitive advantage and make industrial design part of our business plan,” he explained. 

“When IP protection is part of your strategy, you are giving yourself a fighting chance to keep ahead in today’s cutthroat competition,” Garcia said. “It helps not just economic development, creating income streams and jobs, but technological and social development as well.” # # # (Rawl Maliwat, Communications and Marketing Writer)