PH pilots first WIPO brand readiness program to take ‘Tatak Pinoy’ global

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is putting “Tatak Pinoy” on a path to global markets as the Philippines pilots a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) initiative designed to help businesses build trademark strategies for international expansion.

IPOPHL and WIPO, through its Singapore Office, inaugurated last month the Growth Connect: International Brand Readiness Program in an event that gathered export-oriented Philippine enterprises.

Growth Connect sits under the Future Growth Program, WIPO Singapore’s flagship regional initiative which seeks to establish IP as a driver of jobs, investment and enterprise growth. The Manila run is the first Growth Connect held anywhere and the first program of its kind WIPO has launched in ASEAN, with the Philippines selected as pilot country and IPOPHL as flagship partner.

“What we do in this room is meant to become the model for helping Philippine enterprises prepare their brands for the world—and one that we hope can eventually serve as a blueprint for other markets across ASEAN,” said IPOPHL Director General Teodoro C. Pascua. “To be entrusted with piloting Growth Connect is both a responsibility and an opportunity to show what can happen when intellectual property is placed at the heart of an enterprise’s global growth strategy.”

Growth Connect is structured as a cohort-based executive program that gathers and prepares brands already at the point of expansion, in turn developing a pipeline of export-ready Philippine enterprises. The program provides technical support and is designed to continue past a single event through follow-up advisory sessions and filing support.

WIPO Singapore Director Thitapha Wattanapruttipaisan said the initiative is built around the international registration of trademarks and the readiness of Philippine enterprises to carry their brands into foreign markets as these are assets in their own rights.

“We are here to help entrepreneurs protect their marks and their brands, and not only to protect them, but to create value for your brand and your business,” Thitapha said. “Your IP, your intangible asset, is your financial asset.”

The IPOPHL-WIPO initiative will build on the efforts of Republic Act No. 11981 or the Tatak Pinoy Act which mandates that Philippine products and services be made globally competitive.

Aside from inaugurating the new initiative, the technical program also featured technical sessions on trademark ownership and registration through the Madrid Protocol System, walking participants through WIPO’s eMadrid and Madrid Monitor tools.

The program was introduced to homegrown brands with registered trademarks in other countries, followed by an assessment of their international expansion goals. The initiative will be further rolled out to potential partners and beneficiaries in 2028.

The Philippines acceded to the Madrid Protocol in 2012, allowing Filipino applicants to seek trademark protection in more than a hundred territories through a single application filed with IPOPHL. (Leah Alire, Information Officer II)