‘HAPAG-ISIPAN’: IPOPHL Unveils Philippine IP Strategy 2025-2030

Together with partner-institutions, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) unveiled on November 26, 2024 the Philippine Intellectual Property Strategy (PHIPS) 2025-2030, a new roadmap designed to foster collaboration and unlock the full economic potential of homegrown intellectual property (IP) assets.

The PHIPS 2025-2030 aims to position the Philippines as a global hub for creativity and innovation, fostering IP creation, protection and commercialization. It emphasizes leveraging AI, promoting IP valuation and strengthening collaboration to drive economic growth, protect cultural heritage and contribute to sustainable development goals.

The PHIPS imagines the Philippines as a “Hapag-Isipan,” directly translated as a “Banquet of Ideas.” Coined specifically for the PHIPS, the term uses the Filipino word “hapag” to symbolize community, collaboration and togetherness, setting the Philippines as the global table for creativity, innovation and collaboration to build and enjoy IPs towards shared progress.

“We envision the Philippines as a global hapag—a global table, a platform for creativity and innovation, where nations, industries and individuals can come together to create, commercialize and consume IP and IP-backed products and services,” IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said at IPOPHL’s annual stakeholders’ forum where the strategy was unveiled.

“At this global hapag, the youthful energy of the Philippines combines with the resources and expertise of the world to generate new ideas, create high-quality IP products and provide vibrant markets for IP-backed goods and services. The result is an ecosystem where intellectual property thrives, economies grow, and societies flourish—a feast like no other,” Barba added.

To attract global investments and leverage them to stimulate domestic innovative and creative activities, the PHIPS sets out four key strategies:

1. Strengthening IP Awareness and Education
2. Building Systems for IP Valuation and Commercialization
3. Enhancing Local and Global Cooperation
4. Maximizing Emerging Technologies

A key feature in the new strategy is its emphasis on IP as a tangible investment, introducing a bold approach to maximize IP’s value by:

• Building capacities for IP commercialization to help creators transform ideas into marketable ventures.
• Establishing systems for IP-backed financing to enable the use of IP as collateral and to access capital.
• Integrating investment banking services for IP to ensure creators and IP owners can achieve the full financial and economic potential of their innovations.

Implementing these strategies should result in the deeper integration of IP across industries, driving economic value and positioning the Philippines as a global leader in IP commerce. This will support IP-driven exports, expand e-commerce for IP-backed products, strengthen the digital economy and ultimately, help reduce the trade deficit.

The Hapag-Isipan strategy reflects on the core priorities of the Philippine Development Plan, the National Innovation Agenda and Strategy Document, the Philippine Export Development Plan, the Philippine Creative Industry Roadmap and the E-Commerce Roadmap. It incorporates their shared goals into a cohesive roadmap for leveraging IP as a catalyst for growth.

It is also anchored on the goals of new and existing laws, such as the Internet Transactions Act, the Public Private Partnership, the New Government Procurement Act, the One Town One Product Law, the Philippine Creative Industry Development Act, the Innovations Act, the Innovative Start-Up Act, the Amendment to the Public Service Act and Retail Trade Liberalization Act and the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act. (Janina Lim/IPOPHL)