IPOPHL forges ties with Laos to improve local IP systems

Published on January 2, 2020

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines recently inked a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) with the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in a bid to boost bilateral collaboration on improving each other’s intellectual property systems. 

IPOPHL Director General (DG) Josephine R. Santiago and the DIP DG Khanlasy Keobounphanh signed the MOC on the sidelines of the 2019 Association of Southeast Asian Nation-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit held in Seoul, Korea in November 2019.

Under the MOC, both offices will work on, among others, strengthening their cooperation to promote and improve existing IP systems by establishing a mechanism where they can exchange information and best practices.

Such would require developing processing schemes for administrative procedures in a timely manner through initiatives such as DIP’s utilization of search and examination results of IPOPHL and the Laos IP office’s possible designation of IPOPHL as a competent international searching authority and international preliminary examining authority under the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

The conduct of mutually beneficial capacity building activities on IP was also laid down as core of the MOC framework, as well as the development of a streamlined exchange mechanism of IP-related information and best practices between the two countries. 

“Capacity building activities will encompass search and examination procedures for IP application and IP education and awareness-raising, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises,” IPOPHL’s DG Santiago said.

The recently signed MOC is the first bilateral cooperation deal between the two ASEAN countries, realizing each other’s shared vision of actively leveraging IP for their nations’ economic growth.