The ITSO office of Adamson has found that one sensible and practicable means of rolling out sustained awareness of the concepts of IP in general, and innovation and patent rights in particular, is through strategic engagement of the students from across disciplinal orientation. No better way to do this than staging a“ Science and Technology Exposition”, a first for the university, which consolidated and showcased the scientific researches and the resulting technologies of various academic departments of the university( i. e. Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science). Eighteen inventions were put on display in February 2014, and vied for a prize of Php15,000, Php10,000, and Php5,000 for first, second, and third awards, respectively.
The entry called“ Charging Roof Using Thermo Electric Generator” was adjudged the best, clinching the first prize. This technology collects energy for charging electrical device using thermoelectric generators installed under the roof. The three winning inventions, by the university’ s reckoning, have significant industrial usability as well as patentability, and thus will be filed for patent protection with IPOPHL under the PPIP. The inventions passed the following criteria for innovation: novelty of the technology, inventiveness, potential to answer a specific need, marketability( or potential commercial value), and packaging( or presentation). Themed“ Innovating Innovations: ITSO Great in AdU”, the S & T Exposition was graced by the university president, Rev. Fr. Gregorio L. Banaga Jr. who extolled the advances and accomplishments so far made by the ITSO office imbuing IP consciousness and marshalling the support of the university constituents for innovation.
The president was categorical in his support for the ITSO, vowing to help further push forward the innovation agenda of the university through the ITSO, all the way to commercialization of the commerciable technologies that the university has so far produced, for which the president pledged seed money to kick off commercialization initiatives. The university president also urged the Adamson community— faculty and students alike— to use their talents to create technologies that matter to society, and thanked the ITSO office for assiduously taking the lead to pursue this end.
Over time, the express and manifest commitment of the university leadership as well as the diligence of the ITSO staff, now seems to have paid off. Well trained in the fundamentals of IP, the rudiments of patent searching and patent drafting services, and wellacquainted with the complexities and nuances of IP rights, the university ITSO personnel now provide commissioned services in patent searching, patent drafting, and patent prosecution. The ITSO now generates income for the university from the patent services the ITSO provides to external clientele. One of such clients, the IdeaSpace Foundation, a development arm of the Manuel V. Pangilinan Group of Companies, has contracted the ITSO for its patent services. So far, the university ITSO has earned over Php500,000 from patent services alone. And it continues to earn money from clients.
The ITSO of Adamson University may be a modest ideal of a progressively successful ITSO. Their simple example proves there are tangible economic benefits to be enjoyed from IP, while at the same time propping up the innovation performance of the university— technological outputs which promise a new wave of income for the university when these technologies get to be patented, and fly their way into specific industrial markets and get commercialized.
What needs to be underscored at this point is the simple fact that a successful ITSO— and for that matter, a successful innovation portfolio— will entail a no-nonsense commitment from the institutional leadership, a clear-cut research and development path, and an unremitting passion to instil a culture of IP among the university stakeholders. The rest are an ounce of guts, and a dose of wits.
From all indications, the ITSO of Adamson may have well benefited from the small steps it has taken— small steps, but purposeful, smart strides. •
ITSOMAGazine 9