Central Visayas tops patent filings

CENTRAL Visayas (Region 7) filed the most number of patents last year among provinces in the region, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) reported.

The region’s patent filings — driven by the scientific and creative sectors — rose from 197 in 2017 to 210 in 2018, a 6.6-percent increase. IPOPHL said in a statement on Monday that this was due to applications for utility models “or innovations that are improvements on an existing invention, and may or may not involve an inventive step.”