PH to attend HK IP forum

THE Philippines is set to participate in the Business of Intellectual Property (IP) Asia Forum 2023 in Hong Kong on December 7 and 8, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

On Friday, the DTI, through the Philippine Trade and Investment Center-Hong Kong (PTIC-HK), said the forum is jointly organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the theme “IP & Innovation: Steering New Economic Growth.”

Participants that are highly encouraged to attend the forum are entrepreneurs, manufacturers, brand or IP creators, technology license agents, corporate decision-makers, the academe, among others.

The Philippines will be represented by Rowel Barba, the director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines and chairman of the Intellectual Property Rights Experts Group of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

Meanwhile, the PTIC-HK encouraged foreign businessmen and investors to visit the country’s booth at the said event “to explore the latest business prospects and investment opportunities in the Philippines.”

In September this year, the Philippines moved up three spots, to 56th, in the 2023 Global Innovation Index (GII) among 132 economies, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It ranked 59th last year.

The WIPO said in the last four years, the Philippines has consistently performed better in innovation outputs than in innovation inputs.

This year, it improved its ranking to 69th place in innovation inputs, compared to 76th in 2022, 72nd in 2021 and 70th in 2020.

For innovation outputs, the Philippines was 52nd in 2023; 51st in 2022; 40th in 2021; and 41st in 2020.

Across the seven areas of GII, the Philippines ranks highest in business sophistication, placing 38th; knowledge and technology outputs (46th); and market sophistication (55th). The weakest areas are human capital and research (88th), infrastructure (86th) and institutions (79th).