Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2025 submitted by Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL)

Please provide links to your website where the requested information can be found in English, French, or Spanish.  Alternately, you may provide text responses instead of URLs if desired.  If the information is not available on your website in an ATR language, then please provide text.

URLs in responses should meet the following requirements:

• Link to pages with information in English, Spanish, or French
• The URL will remain stable over time (at least three years, preferably more)
• Goes to the specific information requested, not to a general homepage
• If the URL goes to a long PDF document such as an annual report, please indicate which sections or pages contain relevant information.
• Provide additional instructions for using the URL if needed. For instance, if the page requires the user to login first, or if the requested information requires selecting certain options or filters on the page that can not be included in the URL. 

The term "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models.

Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

• Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization

In 2025, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) revised its Manual for Patent Examination Practice which reflected the revisions for 2022 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations such as filing date requirements and formality requirements. For the examination of Industrial Design, the 2025 MPEP incorporated examination approach of emerging designs and the process evaluating novelty in view of an ordinary observer and circumspect observer.

As to address the use of artificial intelligence and inventions relating therein, IPOPHL established the Examination Guidelines of Inventions, Utility Model, and Industrial Design Applications Relating to Artificial Intelligence (2025 AI Guidelines). The AI Guidelines was established to assist examiners and stakeholders in relation to inventorship and approach in industrial designs which may involving the assistance of artificial intelligence.

The examination guidelines may be accessed here in this link: https://www.ipophil.gov.ph/services/patent-examination-guidelines/

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has completed the necessary legal and preparatory work and submitted the Draft Declaration for Accession to the Hague Agreement for the Registration of Industrial Design (ID) in 2025 to the Department of Foreign Affairs for review.

As for the 2024 Riyadh Design Law Treaty, commencement of preparatory works for possible ratification is started and is currently in the pipeline in the future.

• New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description:  aims, partners, tasks

IPOPHL has resumed the following projects specifically beneficial to the design sector:

1. Juana Design Program: This flagship initiative is designed to empower and incentivize women creators by providing financial assistance and technical support for filing their industrial designs. It directly addresses the gender gap in the IP system and encourages more women to protect their creative output.

https://www.ipophil.gov.ph/juana-patent-and-juana-design-protection-incentive-program/

1. Youth Intellectual Property Incentive (YIPI) Program: Aimed at the next generation of creators, this program offers incentives to students and young designers, making it easier for them to file for ID protection for their innovative projects and school-based work.
2. Greentech Incentive Program: This initiative aims to stimulate ingenuity and accelerate the transition toward a sustainable future by encouraging inventors, researchers, and businesses to pursue patent protection for their groundbreaking green inventions.
3. Partnerships with Design Institutions: IPOPHL actively collaborates with design schools, creative hubs, and industry associations to conduct workshops on the strategic use of ID rights and to integrate IP education into design curricula.

• Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

1. Continuation of the Digitization of ID applications

IPOPHL has already completed the digitization project covering 10,333 industrial design (ID) applications in 2024. This includes the uploading of digital representation of drawings to the system and their bibliographic data. Such digitization of ID applications is still being continued for the current applications.

      2.  Centralized Monitoring for Examiners

Aside from digitization, the IPOPHL has started developing a centralized monitoring system for patents and industrial applications for examiners. The monitoring system aims to help examiners to manage their deadlines and workloads.

• Statistics:  changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year;  trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

The filings for industrial applications have consistently increased for the past five years. In 2025, there was a significant increase of 30% in filings from 2024. The increase can be attributed to consistent implementation of programs for local awareness and capacity buildings sessions for industry partners and universities as evidenced by the 46.4% increase of filings from residents from 2024.

As for registrations, 76.5% of total filings were registered in 2025, not far from the usual percentage of registered applications for the past five years.

• Other matters and useful links (URLs):  annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

• Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) – URLs
• Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
• Classification and reclassification activities;  classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
• Other activities

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

• Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URLs)
• Official Gazettes:  main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online – (URL), etc.
• Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
• Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users;  conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
• Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
• Other sources 

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

• Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office:  general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
• Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
• Internal databases:  coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
• Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file:  file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
• Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
• Other matters 

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

• Office’s library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
• Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
• Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
• Education and training:  training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
• Other activities 

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

• International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
• Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information
• Assistance to developing countries
• Other activities 

VII. ACTIVITIES RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WIPO STANDARDS CONCERNING INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Note: For each Standard listed below, please enter one of the following values: 

• "Fully implemented"
• “Partially implemented”
• "On implementation phase"
• "Planning to implement"
• “On assessment phase” 
• "No plan to implement"

Implementation Status Definitions

"Fully implemented" 

The WIPO Standard has been implemented in a manner compliant or compatible with the Standard.

"Partially implemented" 

The WIPO Standard has been implemented in part.  The Office practice aligns with some, but not all, requirements of the Standard.

"On implementation phase"

The decision to implement the WIPO Standard has been made and it is currently being deployed, configured, or integrated into systems and workflows.

"Planning to implement"

The decision to implement the WIPO Standard has been made;  planning activities (resource allocation, timeline development, technical design) are underway before actual implementation begins.

"On assessment phase"

The WIPO Standard is under active evaluation to determine its feasibility, technical requirements, costs, benefits, and alignment with organizational needs before making an implementation decision.

"No plan to implement"

The WIPO Standard has been reviewed and there is currently no intention or plan to implement it.

WIPO Standard ST.2:  Standard manner for designating calendar dates by using the Gregorian calendar

WIPO Standard ST.3:  Recommended standard on two-letter codes for the representation of states, other entities and intergovernmental organizations

WIPO Standard ST.13:  Recommendation for the numbering of applications for industrial property rights (IPRs)

WIPO Standard ST.80:  Recommendation concerning bibliographic data relating to industrial designs

WIPO Standard ST.81:  Recommendation concerning the content and layout of industrial design gazettes

WIPO Standard ST.86:  Recommendation for the processing of industrial design information using XML (extensible markup language)

WIPO Standard ST.87:  Recommendation for the exchange of industrial design legal status data

WIPO Standard ST.88:  Recommendations for electronic representation of industrial designs

WIPO Standard ST.90:  Recommendation for processing and communicating intellectual property data using web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)

WIPO Standard ST.91:  Recommendations on digital three-dimensional (3D) models and 3D images

WIPO Standard ST.92:  Recommendations on the data package format for the electronic exchange of priority documents

WIPO Standard ST.96:  Recommendation for the processing of intellectual property information using XML (extensible markup language)

WIPO Standard ST.97:  Recommendation for processing of intellectual property data using JSON

VIII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS