An Intellectual Property and Technology Business Management (IP-TBM) office is now in place at the MMSU to protect the intellectual rights of research and development (R&D) technologies generated by the university.

In a simple ceremony at the Crops Research Laboratory on Thursday, Dr. Dionisio S. Bucao, chief of the MMSU’s Innovation and Technology Support Office and project leader of IP-TBM, said the marker serves as a symbol of the university’s commitment to protecting its intellectual properties and commercializing technologies and knowledge derived from various R&D activities.

“This facility at MMSU was established through the collaborative efforts of MMSU and the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD),” Dr. Bucao said, adding that the project is one of the 16 projects implemented under the DOST-PCAARRD’s program on developing the IP-TBM operations.

Dr. Bucao said the project resulted in the training of MMSU’s project staff, faculty and researchers on Intellectual Property (IP) protection and commercialization and prior art search.

“MMSU already filed three patents and 11 utility models through the project,” he added.

Meanwhile, Abigail Gueco, senior research specialist of the DOST-PCAARRD’s Technology Transfer Division (TTD), said the agency is planning to require prior art search reports for every technology-generating proposal, which, by virtue of Republic Act (RA) 10055 or the Technology Transfer Act of 2009, paved the way for the government’s IP-TBM program.

“This program aims to strengthen the capacities of IP and TBM operations of selected state colleges and universities (SUCs) and research and development institutes (RDIs) to enhance their commercialization technology activities,” Gueco said, noting that by the recent approval of RA 11293 (Philippine Innovation Act) and RA 11337 (Innovation Startup Act), the DOST-PCAARRD will push for more technology transfer and commercialization initiatives.

“The IP-TBM project here in MMSU is one of the many initiatives as we slowly build our grounds to effect change and achieve a division of competitive agriculture, aquatic and natural resources innovations system,” she said.

Gueco said the DOST-PCAARRD’s collaboration with MMSU has resulted in the approval of funding for its 15 R&D and technology transfer programs worth PHP22.1 million.

The TTD is collaborating again with MMSU for the sustainability of its technology transfer initiatives, she said.

“Right now, we are working with the MMSU in packaging an IP-TBM for the Ilocos Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development Consortium (ILAARRDEC) and, in the near future, the MMSU’s agri-aquatic proposal,” Gueco said, adding that the TTD will help MMSU in packaging the proposal after it is presented.

MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis lauded the unveiling of the marker which, she said, also manifests the university’s stride toward making the university an effective government research institution and haven of intellectual productivity and innovation.

“Aside from protecting its intellectual properties in research, MMSU is also intensifying its efforts in commercializing technologies through increasing its engagement with industry and community stakeholders to identify gaps of its research outputs,” she said.

“The name of the game is not only to generate technologies but to cascade them to the communities,” she said.

She said she hopes the technologies developed by MMSU would transform from the agriculture-based into Information and Communications Technology-based.