Press Release
August 9, 2009

ANGARA URGES IMPROVED POLICIES
ON GOVT-FUNDED DEVT RESEARCH

More efficient laws on intellectual property vital for RP's innovation industry development

Senator Edgardo J. Angra is urging the Senate to legislate for a framework and support system for the ownership, management, use and commercialization of intellectual property generated from government-funded research and development projects.

"The weakest link in the country's innovation system is the transferring and commercializing of the results of research and development, particularly those undertaken by government-funded institutions. For one, the technology transfer process requires a conducive policy environment with strong support from the public and private sectors," reports Angara, Chair of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE).

Senate Bill 1721 seeks for a stronger and closer private-public collaboration and relationship with the industry, provide the framework that will promote coordination, integration and harmonization of all technology transfer efforts by various agencies in the country, resolve issues on technology ownership and provide the institutional mechanism for developing a creative technology transfer capability.

Angara reports that in many developed countries, technology transfer and innovation policies are at the center of their economic development policies. The strong productivity and growth in the US, Japan, European countries and India was underpinned by technological innovations that emanated from high-quality scientific research institutions. Their innovation activities are supported by sufficient investment in research and development, high-capacity research institutions, strong university-industry research collaboration, promotion of entrepreneurship and economic activities across broad spectrum of society, and well defined intellectual property rights regime.

The Philippines has yet to achieve high level of technological readiness and innovative capacity that typify well-developed economies and those entering the developed phase like India. The 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Report places the Philippines in the 71st ranking out of 125 countries in terms of technological readiness or the ability to adopt technologies from home or abroad to enhance the productivity of its industries.

This contrasts with the high rankings of our Asian neighbors like Singapore (2nd), Hong Kong (13th), Korea (18th), Japan (19th), Malaysia (28th) and Thailand (48th). In the area of innovation or the ability to produce brand new technologies, the country ranks a dismal 79th. Compared to emerging innovation powerhouses in the ASEAN like Singapore (9th), Malaysia (21st), Indonesia (37th) and Thailand (33rd), the Philippines clearly has a lot of catching up to do in terms of innovation. It has to respond to opportunities of knowledge-based industries characterized by growing innovation and heightened dependence on intellectual property assets as a key source of economic value and competitive advantage domestically and globally.

Worldwide, there is a growing recognition of the importance of intellectual property (IP) in encouraging innovation, diffusing scientific and technical knowledge, and in enhancing market entry and firm creation. Experiences of other countries show that in order to enhance the impact of publicly-funded R&D on the economy, the protection of intellectual property assets arising from R&D projects funded fully or in part by national government agencies have encouraged the commercialization of publicly funded R&D results bringing about significant private and social benefits. IP rights, of which patents, industrial designs, copyrights and trademarks are among the most widespread, reward investment in R&D and innovation by granting inventors and creators market power over competitors.

Angara adds, "In many countries, governments have recognized that placing the outputs of publicly funded research in the public domain is not sufficient to generate social and economic benefits from R&D. Granting R&D institutions the rights to IP generated with public funds can lead to better use of research results that might otherwise remain unexploited as well as to the creation of academic spin-offs or start-ups that create employment. For R&D institutions, the benefits may include increased licensing and royalty revenues, more contract research and greater cross-fertilization between entrepreneurial faculty and industry. Equally important, however, are the intangible benefits to an institution's reputation and to the quality of its research that closer interaction with the private sector can generate."

Angara further admits, "The challenge now is to address the basic weakness in our technology transfer process, and to provide the enabling mechanism to facilitate the flow of knowledge and technologies to industry, such as a coherent policy on which to base the negotiation of terms for the transfer of technologies between public and private sectors."

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