When I sat as director general of IPOPHL in 2020, the office found itself more than ready to enhance good governance. As I always say, public service is a public trust, and this echoed more loudly while the pandemic was in our midst. Hence, we went on to continue our push for certification under the Proficiency Stage of the Performance Governance System, or PGS.

To do this, we needed to balance internal and external demands while implementing strategic changes.

Internally, we realized the critical need for a competent and dedicated team, along with new systems to improve processes and benefit stakeholders.

Fulfilling this need was the initiative to further the use of our Balanced Scorecard Technology which helped put our vision in focus. Our Office for Strategy Management, or OSM, manages this scorecard efficiently by cascading the strategic use of this scorecard.

The OSM has secured the commitment from our people to harness this system, ensuring the organization operates efficiently and in harmony towards desired outcomes.

With new officials and a revitalized vision, we refreshed our strategy, reviewed programs, and developed strategic initiatives for the next four years. And with transformation, adaptation, and recovery in mind, we created the BRIGHT Agenda that has been guiding our efforts to realize IPOPHL’s vision of a progressive Philippines using intellectual property, or IP, assets for economic and social development.

To achieve this, we needed to fully pivot to the development-oriented agency that we now have become.

Since 2020, we’ve partnered with over 100 local and international agencies to expand our awareness and education programs. With greater awareness to protect IP, IP filings increased by an average of 4 percent over the past five years, with notable growth in patents, trademarks, and utility models. Copyright registrations recently marked a historic record in deposits. IP filings from our satellite offices and partner institutions are also growing, especially in patents and utility models.

To support MSMEs and creative industries affected by the pandemic, we initiated programs like Juan for the World and furthered the reach of our existing programs like Juana Make A Mark for women and IP Inventor Assistance Program for under-resourced inventors. Recognizing the importance of protecting geographical indications, we also drafted rules to give local products a competitive edge and aid regional economies’ recovery.

All these efforts have helped us bag the Silver Trailblazer Award for proficiency stage of the Performance Governance System. Conferred by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia in 2022, the recognition shows how IPOPHL’s governance reforms are effectively progressing toward increased local innovation, creativity and overall IP generation.

Fulfilling this need was the initiative to further the use of our Balanced Scorecard Technology which helped put our vision in focus. Our Office for Strategy Management, or OSM, manages this scorecard efficiently by cascading the strategic use of this scorecard.

As IPOPHL is committed to finish its PGS journey with the final leg dealing with institutionalization, we hope to fully transform into a strategy-focused organization. We hope to show how far we have gone in delivering breakthrough results that are responsive to the growing and evolving needs of inventors, artists and business when it comes to their IP assets.

Undeniably, transformation — and change in general — involves hardships. But as our experience during the pandemic has shown, IPOPHL is able and ready to face these hardships with both innovation and resilience.