The OVCRD Report (May 2011-April 2014).2.10.14 | Page 69

The OVCRD Report

commercialization/deployment. Further, ITSO
network members undergo a series of capacitybuilding courses and training programs that
will enable them to teach and conduct patent
searches and patent drafting, as well as provide
assistance in patent prosecution. In line with
this, OVCRD’s Technology Transfer Officers
and other staff, together with UP Diliman
faculty members and researchers, attended the
2012 training programs on the basics of
intellectual property and patent search. Some
of them also participated in the distance
learning courses offered by the WIPO and/or
in the Patent Agent Qualifying Examination
(PAQE) training program administered by the
IPOPHL. Through these courses and training
programs, the competencies of OVCRD’s
Technology Transfer Officers in IP protection
and commercialization were strengthened, and
a pool of UP Diliman faculty members and
researchers knowledgeable in the basics of IP
protection was formed.
As part of its commitments as ITSO, the
OVCRD has set up patent search facilities in
three locations in the campus: the OVCRD
itself, and the libraries of the College of
Science and College of Engineering. Each
facility is equipped with the Thomson Reuters
(TR) patent database, and tutorials on

The ITSO partnership with IPOPHL has given
UP Diliman an important milestone in IP
protection and commercialization: it now has its
first patent agents. They are Vice-Chancellor
Pacheco and Atty. Marcia Ruth Gabriela P.
Fernandez, an Assistant Professor of Sociology
at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.
Vice-Chancellor Pacheco and Atty. Fernandez
were among those who passed the 2013 PAQE,
and will enter the IPOPHL’s Registry of Patent
Agents. They will also be recommended for
appointment as University Patent Agents. Patent
agents are crucial in the technology transfer
process, especially in terms of assisting inventors
in the drafting, filing and prosecution of their
patent applications.
In the long term, the OVCRD as ITSO expects