The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines expressed dismay over results of the Global Innovation Index 2022 which saw the Philippines drop 8 places to 59th among the 132 countries featured in the report.
The IPOPHL also called for the acceleration of work the National Innovation Councilto improve the country’s ranking.
“We regret to see the decline of the Philippines in the 2022 Global Innovation Index. Our slide of eight rungs is most alarming,” the agency said in a statement.
The agency traced the decline to double-digit decreases on the education and tertiary education sub-indicators under human capital and research; knowledge creation and knowledge impact sub-indicators under knowledge and technology outputs; creative goods and services sub-indicator under creative outputs.
The report showed that the laggard sub-indicators related to intellectual property were industrial designs where the Philippines fell 10 spots in ranking; followed by cultural and creative services exports that declined 9 spots; utility models, 7 spots; patent families, by 7 spots; university-industry R&D collaboration and trademarks, by 3 notches each.
“We would like to note that the decline in ID, UM and trademarks may be due to the fact that the report based its data on 2020 when IPOPHL saw a decline in application across all types of IP due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The drop cumulatively totaled to be the biggest decline in filing activities throughout IPOPHL’s 25 year in office,” IPOPHL said.
The said it would engage more proactively with the country’s creative economy and ensure yielding positive outcomes from the creatives-based partnerships it has been forging over the years.
“We also see the recently legislated Creative Industries Development Act as providing a boost to bring our creative genius to the global stage,” it said.
The IPOPHL said its Innovation and Technology Support Office program could also help strengthen collaborations between businesses and academe to create IP assets that are truly relevant and useful to industry and the market.
“We will definitely intensify our work in creating an environment that stimulates creative and innovative activities through promoting IP protection and creating a robust enforcement regime,” the agency said.