Why the WIPO report gives me hope
Our greatest competitive advantage must increasingly come from the creativity, ingenuity, and innovative spirit of the Filipino people.
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Daily TribuneOur greatest competitive advantage must increasingly come from the creativity, ingenuity, and innovative spirit of the Filipino people.
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There are reports that simply present numbers, and then there are reports that tell a much bigger story. The Third Edition of the World Intangible Investment Highlights by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Italy’s Luiss Business School (LBS) belongs to the latter bracket.
When I learned that the Philippines generated US$49.1 billion in investments in knowledge-based or intangible assets in 2022, with annual real growth averaging 3.9 percent from 2012 to 2022 — higher than the global average — I could not help but smile.
Having served as director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), I know how much effort goes into building an innovation ecosystem. These figures affirm that the seeds planted over many years are beginning to bear fruit.
For many Filipinos, the term “intangible assets” may sound technical. Yet they are all around us.
They include inventions protected by patents, brands recognized through trademarks, creative works covered by copyright, industrial designs, software, research, proprietary technologies, data and the knowledge embedded in our people and organizations. In an advanced economy today, these assets often create more value than factories or machines.
This is precisely why the WIPO report is significant.
The Philippines has recently joined the ranks of upper middle-income economies. While this milestone deserves recognition, sustaining this status — and eventually becoming a high-income economy — requires us to move beyond relying on traditional sources of growth.
We can no longer compete primarily on low labor costs or abundant natural resources. Our greatest competitive advantage must increasingly come from the creativity, ingenuity, and innovative spirit of the Filipino people.
During my years at IPOPHL, one message I consistently shared with entrepreneurs, researchers, inventors, artists, and students was that intellectual property is not merely a legal concept. It is an economic asset. Protecting works is important, but creating value from those works is even more important.
That belief shaped many of the initiatives we pursued. We encouraged universities to commercialize their research, helped MSMEs build stronger brands, expanded intellectual property education, strengthened enforcement against infringement, and promoted IP as a business strategy rather than simply a legal safeguard.
We wanted Filipinos to understand that innovation and intellectual property are powerful tools for creating jobs, attracting investments, and improving lives.
The latest WIPO report tells me that our country is moving in the right direction. But much work remains. The Philippines still invests relatively little in research and development compared with many of our neighbors. Too many approved patents and utility models never reach the marketplace. Many businesses still underestimate the value of the WIPO.
Government, academe, industry, and the private sector must therefore continue working together to build an economy where innovation thrives. Investments in education, science, technology, artificial intelligence, digital transformation and intellectual property should not be viewed as expenses but as investments in our country’s future.
As someone who has had the privilege of helping shape the country’s intellectual property landscape, I find the WIPO report both encouraging and inspiring. It validates years of collaboration among countless public servants, innovators, entrepreneurs, creators and development partners who believed that the Philippines could become an innovation-driven economy.
The numbers are certainly worth celebrating. But more importantly, they remind us that the most valuable resources of our nation are not only those buried beneath our soil or found in our seas but where the imagination, talent, resilience, and creativity of the Filipino people is kept alive. If we continue to invest in these intangible assets, there is nothing intangible about the prosperity they can bring.
