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Jayme Navarro, Filipino inventor of plastic to diesel converter

Filipino inventors urged to avail of gov’t assistance program

Jayme Navarro,  Filipino inventor of plastic to diesel converter
Jayme Navarro, Filipino inventor of plastic to diesel converter

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines –Banking on the potentials of Filipino inventors, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through its Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) has vowed to provide them indispensable support. Roberto Versoza, senior science research specialist of DOST-TAPI Central Office, said their institute, under the Republic Act No. 7459 also known as the Inventors and Invention Incentives Act, is ready to help the local and potential innovators and provide them with financial assistance to commercialize their inventions.
“Through the law, TAPI provides cash assistance to potential and actual inventors starting from prototyping to marketing,” Versoza said noting that despite the law, the country is not producing much patents or inventions needed to contribute more to the economy. Patent is an intellectual property right granted exclusively to inventors “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention” throughout the country. Based on the 2014 statistics of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), domestic patent application in the Philippines accounted only to 334 which placed the country to 51st rank worldwide. Developed countries like China, which ranked first in the world, has 801,135 domestic patent applications, followed by the United States of America with 285,096 patent applications and Japan with 265,959 patent applications filed in 2014. “
Napakarami nilang mga inventions na nakapag-contribute sa kanilang ekonomiya, subalit sa Philippines, napakalaki ng discrepancy compared sa mga top three na bansa,” Versoza said. Under the law, inventors could avail of the following support from the government: intellectual property rights assistance program, prototype development, testing assistance, pilot plant assistance, promotion and publication, tax/duty exemption assistance, invention guarantee fund, travel assistance, and trainings.
“Through incentives and other forms of assistance and support, the government aims to encourage all local inventors who are creative and resourceful, as well as imbued with a deep sense of nationalism, to unleash their viable ideas as well as maximize their capability and productivity,” he said in an interview.
Versoza said for the invention guarantee fund, inventors can avail a financial grant of up to P100,000 from DOST-TAPI to fund their research and development on their ideas and concepts and further develop the commercialization of their inventions but they would have to submit applications and proposals for assistance.

Criselda Cabangon David, a happy mother of two kids, is a full-time Sociologist at the City Government of Lucena, Quezon Province. She is currently the Managing Editor of Ang Diaryo Natin Sunday News, a weekly local community newspaper in the Philippines and an active member of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.