IPOPHL partners with DLSU to establish country’s first-ever Master's Degree in intellectual property

March 5, 2020

A master’s degree in intellectual property (IP) may soon be offered at the De La Salle University (DLSU) after it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) to affirm its commitment in developing this post-graduate course.

IPOPHL DG Rowel S. Barba and DLSU President Br. Raymundo B. Suplido signed the MoU last Feb. 24 with IPOPHL Deputy Director General Teodoro C. Pascua, IP Academy Officer-in-Charge Dr. Frederick P. Romero, DLSU’s IP Office Director Atty. Christopher E. Cruz, and DLSU’s Research and Innovation Vice-Chancellor Dr. Raymond Girard R. Tan as witnesses.

"The rationale behind the establishment of a post-graduate course on IP is to further professionalize the experts in the field, which would mean raising the bar on the quality of work and service an IP practitioner is expected to deliver. Improving the workforce can then lead to a better, more accessible, and more scalable IP system," Barba said. 

Besides the development of a post-graduate course on IP, the IPOPHL-DLSU MoU will also lead to DLSU's production and publication of an academic journal that collates all research papers relating to IP management, technology, and innovation. 

To note, before publishing the journal, IPOPHL and DLSU will hold the 1st Intellectual Property Research Conference where researchers will present their papers and vie for space in the IP Journal. Tentatively scheduled within the third quarter this year, the conference aims to increase research studies that can introduce useful and strategic models on how various industries can leverage IP for the country’s scientific and economic gains. 

IPOPHL will provide all the necessary capacity-building support DLSU will need to achieve the goals under the agreement. Likewise, the two will coordinate in furthering IP training and education beyond the Green Archers’ campus.

DG Barba views IPOPHL’s move to tag the university as one of its academic partners in mainstreaming IP in higher education as strategic given DLSU’s level of sophistication in terms of its research pursuits.

Last month, the Times Higher Education Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020 was released and the DLSU emerged in the 351-400 bracket, marking its second year to be the sole private university from the Philippines to be enlisted, and to be one of the 533 institutions from 47 countries to meet the rankings’ criteria.

The ranking only exhibits one part of DLSU’s vast achievements in research as the private university had been widely lauded for having the highest number of academic publications, and for the impactfulness and social relevance of the research studies it churns out.

“This newly sealed partnership with DLSU is another remarkable stride for IPOPHL, through its IP Academy, which has the mission to entrench on a national level the enforcement of intellectual property rights beginning with schools where we can nurture young minds to have respect for intellectual creations derived from other people's hard work, and to see the value of their own hard work,” Barba said. 

“The DLSU-IPOPHL partnership is hoped to form the foundations of a stronger relationship between IPOPHL and research institutions that would provide solutions to the country’s developmental and educational concerns,“ he added.

IPOPHL's IP Academy, the national center for IP education and enforcement training, is constantly in the works of expanding its network of university and college partners who share IPOPHL’s vision for IP education, training, and research.

Aside from expanding and deepening its relations with the academe, IP Academy is working simultaneously on a wide array of capacity-building projects such as an IP Academy roadshow, accreditation workshops, and certification seminars, among others.