The Intellectual Property (IP) Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) held on Wednesday an intensive seminar on intellectual property (IP) for advertising agency Digital-Out-of-Home Philippines to promote IP protection and respect.
The face-to-face Learn, Be Empowered, Adopt, and Profit from IP (LEAP) seminar was requested by the DOOH to enhance IP understanding among its employees.
“The rights to own IP including all other facets under its jurisdiction is important to every organization and business. Now that the world is so digitalized, it’s very easy to grab content and ideas. This LEAP seminar of IPOPHL will help the DOOH and Filipino artists and inventors understand the laws and appreciate the value of our intangible assets, and those of others, in this digital age,” said DOOH CEO Alvin M. Carranza.
For his part, Director General Rowel S. Barba commended the DOOH for striving for greater IP understanding across its company.
“We hope that more companies see the value of integrating IP management and understanding in their core operations and digital campaigns,” Barba said.
IP respect drives innovation, creativity
To recall, the company was recently involved in controversy over its allegedly unauthorized use of a photo that was posted on its public digital platforms.
“We hope that with this IP learning event, we can avoid a repeat of IP infringement controversies, which should serve as a lesson to all,” Barba said.
He also warned that the impending costly legal battles and heated public scrutiny in forgetting or neglecting to respect others’ hard-earned IP works can respectively cause capital and reputational damage which could be hard for companies to recover from.
“We’ve seen in the past how even big businesses have closed down due to such damage. We hope to prevent a Filipino company from learning the lesson of IP respect the hard way,” Barba added.
The IPOPHL chief said that in the long term an environment that respects IP could drive the creation of knowledge goods that could enhance economic growth and strengthen cultural identities.
“Innovators and creators would create more and IP investors would invest more if they have confidence that their works are protected and respected,” Barba said.
The LEAP seminar is IPOPHL’s weekly learning event that provides a basic overview of the different types of IP.
When deployed online due to the pandemic in 2020, LEAP saw the number of attendees jump 44% year-on-year to 1,696. As of June this year, the internet-based learning event or iLEAP has gained a 6% increase in attendees compared to the January to June volume in 2021, indicating the continued interest of the public to learn IP.
IPOPHL also holds the IP LEAP Forward which offers advanced IP seminars catering to a specific industry or audience. The Office also accommodates company requests for private seminars when possible.
Aside from providing regular and special learning events, IPOPHL has also been intensifying its awareness campaign through social media and communication to the public by addressing common questions about IP.
“We hope that through our IP awareness and education programs and initiatives, IPOPHL can help bring IP to the top of mind of all IP creators and users, especially as high-value knowledge goods and services are what give companies their competitive edge today,” Barba added.# (Hannah Dione Lucero, Media Relations Officer, Communications and Marketing Office, Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer Bureau, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines)
