TAGUIG - The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Manila Science High School (MaSci) in an effort to bring intellectual property (IP) education into its curricula, a press release stated by IPOPHL.

Signed by IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba and MaSci Principal Manolo G. Peña, the MOA was facilitated through MaSci’s long-standing collaboration with the Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer Bureau (DITTB) under the latter’s Young IP Advocates (YIPA) Program. 

The MOA highlights that both parties will be working to enhance the school’s IP policy, develop the necessary materials to integrate and mainstream IP education in the curricula and strengthen its IP Club which was made possible by the YIPA Program. 

At the signing, Director General Rowel S. Barba said the bureau’s nine-year collaboration with MaSci is a testament to IPOPHL’s mission to sustain ties with educational institutions.

“Our partnership with MaSci demonstrates that more institutions and students are inspired to develop their own strategies to protect IP rights. Our work is truly cut out for us, as more schools are gearing towards the direction of IP protection and appreciation. We simply have to continue providing the right tools to inspire the academe to protect their own IPs,” Barba said.

Meanwhile, DITTB Director Ralph Jarvis H. Alindogan lauded Yzhae Marrione Capuno Villaruel, a student from MaSci,  for her appointment as one of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Youth Ambassadors.

“Student-inventors like Yzhae is a testament to the huge roles schools play in integrating an IP protection strategy into their culture of innovation,” Alindogan said. 

On MaSci’s end, Peña is optimistic that the tie-up with IPOPHL intensifies the school’s capacity to cultivate the minds of young scientists, inventors and artists in an environment that respects IP rights.

“What’s best is to revisit the IP policy of the school to diffuse IP knowledge. Now that we have gone through several conversations with IPOPHL, we believe this can encourage more students to accomplish more through IP,” Peña said.