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A. Constitutional Provisions

community-based organizations in the generation and utilization of science

and technology.

ARTICLE XII
SECTION 6. The use of property bears a social function, and all economic
agents shall contribute to the common good. Individuals and private groups,
including corporations, cooperatives, and similar collective organizations, shall
have the right to own, establish, and operate economic enterprises, subject to
the duty of the State to promote distributive justice and to intervene when
the common good so demands.
SECTION 14. The sustained development of a reservoir of national talents
consisting of Filipino scientists, entrepreneurs, professionals, managers, highlevel technical manpower and skilled workers and craftsmen in all fields shall
be promoted by the State. The State shall encourage appropriate technology
and regulate its transfer for the national benefit.
The practice of all professions in the Philippines shall be limited to Filipino
citizens, save in cases prescribed by law.
ARTICLE XIV
Science and Technology
SECTION 10. Science and technology are essential for national development
and progress. The State shall give priority to research and development,
invention, innovation, and their utilization; and to science and technology
education, training, and services. It shall support indigenous, appropriate,
and self-reliant scientific and technological capabilities, and their application
to the countrys productive systems and national life.
SECTION 11. The Congress may provide for incentives, including tax
deductions, to encourage private participation in programs of basic and
applied scientific research. Scholarships, grants-in-aid, or other forms of
incentives shall be provided to deserving science students, researchers,
scientists, inventors, technologists, and specially gifted citizens.
SECTION 12. The State shall regulate the transfer and promote the
adaptation of technology from all sources for the national benefit. It shall
encourage the widest participation of private groups, local governments, and

SECTION 13. The State shall protect and secure the exclusive rights of
scientists, inventors, artists, and other gifted citizens to their intellectual
property and creations, particularly when beneficial to the people, for such
period as may be provided by law.
Arts and Culture
SECTION 14. The State shall foster the preservation, enrichment, and
dynamic evolution of a Filipino national culture based on the principle of unity
in diversity in a climate of free artistic and intellectual expression.
SECTION 15. Arts and letters shall enjoy the patronage of the State. The
State shall conserve, promote, and popularize the nations historical and
cultural heritage and resources, as well as artistic creations.
SECTION 16. All the countrys artistic and historic wealth constitutes the
cultural treasure of the nation and shall be under the protection of the State
which may regulate its disposition.
SECTION 17. The State shall recognize, respect, and protect the rights of
indigenous cultural communities to preserve and develop their cultures,
traditions, and institutions. It shall consider these rights in the formulation of
national plans and policies.
SECTION 18. (1) The State shall ensure equal access to cultural opportunities
through the educational system, public or private cultural entities,
scholarships, grants and other incentives, and community cultural centers,
and other public venues.
(2) The State shall encourage and support researches and studies on the arts
and culture.

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The scientist or technologist has the ownership of his discovery or invention

even before it is patented. (n)

B. CIVIL CODE PROVISIONS

Art. 723. Letters and other private communications in writing are owned by
the person to whom they are addressed and delivered, but they cannot be
published or disseminated without the consent of the writer or his heirs.
However, the court may authorize their publication or dissemination if the
public good or the interest of justice so requires. (n)

DIFFERENT MODES OF ACQUIRING OWNERSHIP

Art. 724. Special laws govern copyright and patent. (429a)

PRELIMINARY PROVISION
Art. 712. Ownership is acquired by occupation and by intellectual creation.
Ownership and other real rights over property are acquired and transmitted
by law, by donation, by estate and intestate succession, and in consequence
of certain contracts, by tradition.
They may also be acquired by means of prescription. (609a)
Title II. - INTELLECTUAL CREATION
Art. 721. By intellectual creation, the following persons acquire ownership:
(1) The author with regard to his literary, dramatic, historical, legal,
philosophical, scientific or other work;
(2) The composer; as to his musical composition;
(3) The painter, sculptor, or other artist, with respect to the product of
his art;
(4) The scientist or technologist or any other person with regard to
his discovery or invention. (n)
Art. 722. The author and the composer, mentioned in Nos. 1 and 2 of the
preceding article, shall have the ownership of their creations even before the
publication of the same. Once their works are published, their rights are
governed by the Copyright laws.
The painter, sculptor or other artist shall have dominion over the product of
his art even before it is copyrighted.

TRADE-MARKS AND TRADE-NAMES

Art. 520. A trade-mark or trade-name duly registered in the proper
government bureau or office is owned by and pertains to the person,
corporation, or firm registering the same, subject to the provisions of special
laws. (n)
Art. 521. The goodwill of a business is property, and may be transferred
together with the right to use the name under which the business is
conducted. (n)
Art. 522. Trade-marks and trade-names are governed by special laws. (n)

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C. Definition of Intellectual Property

Section 4, Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (IPC),

Republic Act No. 8293
SECTION 4.Definitions. 4.1. The term "intellectual property rights"
consists of: a. Copyright and Related Rights; b. Trademarks and Service
Marks; c. Geographic Indications; d. Industrial Designs; e. Patents; f. LayoutDesigns (Topographies) of Integrated Circuits; and g. Protection of
Undisclosed Information (n, TRIPS). 4.2. The term "technology transfer
arrangements" refers to contracts or agreements involving the transfer of
systematic knowledge for the manufacture of a product, the application of a
process, or rendering of a service including management contracts; and the
transfer, assignment or licensing of all forms of intellectual property rights,
including licensing of computer software except computer software developed
for mass market. 4.3. The term "Office" refers to the Intellectual Property
Office created by this Act. 4.4. The term "IPO Gazette" refers to the gazette
published by the Office under this Act. (n)
II.The Law on Trademarks, Tradenames and Service Marks
A.Definition
Section 121, IPC
SECTION 121.Definitions. As used in Part III, the following terms have
the following meanings: 121.1. "Mark" means any visible sign capable of
distinguishing the goods (trademark) or services (service mark) of an
enterprise and shall include a stamped or marked container of goods; (Sec.
38, R.A. No. 166a) 121.2. "Collective mark" means any visible sign
designated as such in the application for registration and capable of
distinguishing the origin or any other common characteristic, including the
quality of goods or services of different enterprises which use the sign under
the control of the registered owner of the collective mark; (Sec. 40, R.A. No.
166a) 121.3. "Trade name" means the name or designation identifying or
distinguishing an enterprise; (Sec. 38, R.A. No. 166a) 121.4. "Bureau" means
the Bureau of Trademarks; 121.5. "Director" means the Director of
Trademarks; 121.6. "Regulations" means the Rules of Practice in Trademarks
and Service Marks formulated by the Director of Trademarks and approved by
the Director General; and 121.7. "Examiner" means the trademark examiner.
(Sec. 38, R.A. No. 166a)

D. Sources of Rights
1.IPC
2.Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property
a. National Treatment Principle
Article
National Treatment for Nationals of Countries of the Union

(1) Nationals of any country of the Union shall, as regards the protection of
industrial property, enjoy in all the other countries of the Union the
advantages that their respective laws now grant, or may hereafter grant, to
nationals; all without prejudice to the rights specially provided for by this
Convention. Consequently, they shall have the same protection as the latter,
and the same legal remedy against any infringement of their rights, provided
that the conditions and formalities imposed upon nationals are complied with.
(2) However, no requirement as to domicile or establishment in the country
where protection is claimed may be imposed upon nationals of countries of
the Union for the enjoyment of any industrial property rights.
(3) The provisions of the laws of each of the countries of the Union relating to
judicial and administrative procedure and to jurisdiction, and to the
designation of an address for service or the appointment of an agent, which
may be required by the laws on industrial property are expressly reserved.

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C.
(1) The periods of priority referred to above shall be twelve months for
patents and utility models, and six months for industrial designs and
trademarks.
(2) These periods shall start from the date of filing of the first application;
the day of filing shall not be included in the period.

b. Right of Priority
Article
A
to
I.
Patents,
Utility
Models,
Industrial
Marks,
Inventors
Certificates: Right
of
G. Patents: Division of the Application

4
Designs,
Priority

(3) If the last day of the period is an official holiday, or a day when the
Office is not open for the filing of applications in the country where
protection is claimed, the period shall be extended until the first following
working day.

A.
(4) A subsequent application concerning the same subject as a previous
first application within the meaning of paragraph (2), above, filed in the
same country of the Union shall be considered as the first application, of
which the filing date shall be the starting point of the period of priority, if,
at the time of filing the subsequent application, the said previous
application has been withdrawn, abandoned, or refused, without having
been laid open to public inspection and without leaving any rights
outstanding, and if it has not yet served as a basis for claiming a right of
priority. The previous application may not thereafter serve as a basis for
claiming a right of priority.

(1) Any person who has duly filed an application for a patent, or for the
registration of a utility model, or of an industrial design, or of a
trademark, in one of the countries of the Union, or his successor in title,
shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in the other countries, a right of
priority during the periods hereinafter fixed.
(2) Any filing that is equivalent to a regular national filing under the
domestic legislation of any country of the Union or under bilateral or
multilateral treaties concluded between countries of the Union shall be
recognized as giving rise to the right of priority.
(3) By a regular national filing is meant any filing that is adequate to
establish the date on which the application was filed in the country
concerned, whatever may be the subsequent fate of the application.
B. Consequently, any subsequent filing in any of the other countries of the
Union before the expiration of the periods referred to above shall not be
invalidated by reason of any acts accomplished in the interval, in particular,
another filing, the publication or exploitation of the invention, the putting on
sale of copies of the design, or the use of the mark, and such acts cannot
give rise to any third-party right or any right of personal possession. Rights
acquired by third parties before the date of the first application that serves as
the basis for the right of priority are reserved in accordance with the domestic
legislation of each country of the Union

D.
(1) Any person desiring to take advantage of the priority of a previous
filing shall be required to make a declaration indicating the date of such
filing and the country in which it was made. Each country shall determine
the latest date on which such declaration must be made.
(2) These particulars shall be mentioned in the publications issued by the
competent authority, and in particular in the patents and the
specifications relating thereto.
(3) The countries of the Union may require any person making a
declaration of priority to produce a copy of the application (description,
drawings, etc.) previously filed. The copy, certified as correct by the
authority which received such application, shall not require any

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authentication, and may in any case be filed, without fee, at any time
within three months of the filing of the subsequent application. They may
require it to be accompanied by a certificate from the same authority
showing the date of filing, and by a translation.

G.
(1) If the examination reveals that an application for a patent contains
more than one invention, the applicant may divide the application into a
certain number of divisional applications and preserve as the date of each
the date of the initial application and the benefit of the right of priority, if
any.

(4) No other formalities may be required for the declaration of priority at

the time of filing the application. Each country of the Union shall
determine the consequences of failure to comply with the formalities
prescribed by this Article, but such consequences shall in no case go
beyond the loss of the right of priority.

(2) The applicant may also, on his own initiative, divide a patent
application and preserve as the date of each divisional application the
date of the initial application and the benefit of the right of priority, if any.
Each country of the Union shall have the right to determine the conditions
under which such division shall be authorized.

(5) Subsequently, further proof may be required.

Any person who avails himself of the priority of a previous application
shall be required to specify the number of that application; this number
shall be published as provided for by paragraph (2), above.

H. Priority may not be refused on the ground that certain elements of the
invention for which priority is claimed do not appear among the claims
formulated in the application in the country of origin, provided that the
application documents as a whole specifically disclose such elements.
I.

E.
(1) Where an industrial design is filed in a country by virtue of a right of
priority based on the filing of a utility model, the period of priority shall be
the same as that fixed for industrial designs.
(2) Furthermore, it is permissible to file a utility model in a country by
virtue of a right of priority based on the filing of a patent application, and
vice versa.
F. No country of the Union may refuse a priority or a patent application on
the ground that the applicant claims multiple priorities, even if they originate
in different countries, or on the ground that an application claiming one or
more priorities contains one or more elements that were not included in the
application or applications whose priority is claimed, provided that, in both
cases, there is unity of invention within the meaning of the law of the country.
With respect to the elements not included in the application or applications
whose priority is claimed, the filing of the subsequent application shall give
rise to a right of priority under ordinary conditions.

(1) Applications for inventors certificates filed in a country in which

applicants have the right to apply at their own option either for a patent
or for an inventors certificate shall give rise to the right of priority
provided for by this Article, under the same conditions and with the same
effects as applications for patents.
(2) In a country in which applicants have the right to apply at their own
option either for a patent or for an inventors certificate, an applicant for
an inventors certificate shall, in accordance with the provisions of this
Article relating to patent applications, enjoy a right of priority based on an
application for a patent, a utility model, or an inventors certificate.

(IPC) SECTION 131.Priority Right. 131.1. An application for registration

of a mark filed in the Philippines by a person referred to in Section 3, and
who previously duly filed an application for registration of the same mark in
one of those countries, shall be considered as filed as of the day the
application was first filed in the foreign country. 131.2. No registration of a
mark in the Philippines by a person described in this section shall be granted

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until such mark has been registered in the country of origin of the applicant.
131.3. Nothing in this section shall entitle the owner of a registration granted
under this section to sue for acts committed prior to the date on which his
mark was registered in this country: Provided, That, notwithstanding the
foregoing, the owner of a well-known mark as defined in Section 123.1(e) of
this Act, that is not registered in the Philippines, may, against an identical or
confusingly similar mark, oppose its registration, or petition the cancellation
of its registration or sue for unfair competition, without prejudice to availing

himself of other remedies provided for under the law. 131.4. In like manner
and subject to the same conditions and requirements, the right provided in
this section may be based upon a subsequent regularly filed application in the
same foreign country: Provided, That any foreign application filed prior to
such subsequent application has been withdrawn, abandoned, or otherwise
disposed of, without having been laid open to public inspection and without
leaving any rights outstanding, and has not served, nor thereafter shall serve,
as a basis for claiming a right of priority. (Sec. 37, R.A. No. 166a)