It’s all in the mind

I was just at an Intellectual Property Week celebration in Singapore and I learned a lot more about what the mind can do. Creativity is truly the biggest resource in the world. Think about the people who invented zippers, pull tabs for soft drink cans, Velcro, the flexible straw and more – all of these are creations of the mind.

When I was little and much younger, I thought that everything important had already been invented – the telephone, electricity, the cotton gin, the gas-powered automobile, among others that we find so ordinary nowadays. But the telephone is now a handy phone which is a wallet, a computer and more. That is innovation. Again, all are creations of the mind.

One of the speakers at our pocket event with World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO was Christopher Ng, Group CEO of Rigel. He talked about Internet of Toilets (IoT) which his company has patented and it is amazing how a simple subject like toilets can be innovated with technology for better and more efficient operations. How many times do we complain about toilets that do not work, or have no water, no paper and are dirty? Ng has thought about it all. He can tell a mall operator how much water is used, how much toilet paper, how many people came in and which toilet needs fixing. Anytime, all the time. That is a dream for most but a reality in Singapore. That is a product of the mind.

So we are free to create and the WIPO has an office in every country-member of the United Nations, such as our IPOPHL – Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, led by its youthful director general Atty. Rowel Barba. The IPO has given MSMEs the trademark protection they need, for FREE! Well, at least with their program called “JUANA Make A Mark” – MSMEs led by women have had free access to trademark registration, which otherwise would cost an entrepreneur thousands of pesos to protect her trademark or brand. Kudos to Atty. Barba and his team.

Another project supported by IPOPHL is Geographical Indication or GI – like Champagne in France, or Guimaras mangoes. I would pitch the idea to coffee growers as coffee origins now add value to the price of coffee, from anywhere in the world, as long as it is traceable or has a provenance.

The Department Trade and Industry (www.dti.gov.ph) office is in the process of doing GI for T’nalak, a textile weave unique to the T’boli group in Region 12, led by DTI’s progressive regional director Flora Gabunales. Though it takes time, it will allow us to preserve these unique cultural products under Intellectual Property Rights  or IPR.

And now that the Creative Industries Act has been passed into law, Rep. Christopher de Venecia and Sen. Loren Legarda will ensure that creative industries are encouraged and innovators and creators are protected. This is the law that will also help us preserve our gastronomy and all other creations of the mind that used to be copied, depriving original creators of protection and attribution. This law may as well be replicated across ASEAN to protect our rich cultural traditions.

Back to IP, statistics show that enterprises who register their intellectual properties (IPs) are more profitable and more sustainable. And WIPO has also opened the doors to helping creators through technology. It has a friendly website that one can access to go through registration in all countries, not just in your home country. You can also do a trademark search, even in our own IPOPHL, to see if someone has already thought about a name you thought you had dreamed about and is original.

Knowing about intellectual property rights, protection, strategy and management is a must for entrepreneurs to be successful and profitable. Like they say, your ideas can be your assets if they are protected. Though many companies hire IP lawyers and many complain of the exorbitant fees to protect a trademark, it is now possible to do the search and registration by yourself and ask for assistance, at least from IPOPHL. We do not want to replicate the sad experience of Flexxon, where it was challenged by a big multinational whose trademark was registered in almost all countries of the world, and Flexxon incurred a lot of expense to make it right.

I was so amazed that the now ubiquitous rolling luggage is also patented. So with the blister pack for medicines and the retractable pen. And the most common of all, especially with online purchases – the bubble wrap. Necessity is the mother of invention and truly many innovations and inventions still appear in our midst everyday because people think about solutions to everyday problems or what are now called “pain points.”

Everything is created in the place called “grey matter” and that is an equalizer, as everyone is born with it. You may not be born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but you were definitely blessed with a brain.

So, go ahead and meditate, think and create. The youth who spend a lot of time on gadgets must instead think of new ways to solve problems, rather than being just the users of creations like TikTok and similar apps. The women can think of solutions to their multi-tasking everyday life as the men think of better ways to do their jobs. It’s open to everyone.

So as we find time to think, we can find time to create. And it’s true what they say – it’s all in the mind.