A type of property can be can be protected through patenting and trademarking is intellectual property. When protected, the intellectual property is restricted in use by the owner. The owner then is said to have intellectual property rights (IPR) of the said created idea or product.

This was one of the concepts discussed during the two-day Seminar-Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights and Biotechnology held at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija organized by the PhilRice IP Management Office. The workshop which was attended by Dione Christian Baracol, BIC staff on 6-7 July was one of the highlights during the National Biotechnology Week (1-7 July 2005).

Jointly held was the inauguration of the workshop venue, the IPR Training Center. A recent milestone of the IP Management Office, the center was established with funding support from Department of Agriculture - Biotechnology Program.

The center aims to cater to biotech-IP-related training needs of R&D institutions, state colleges and universities, and other relevant stakeholders in the agriculture and fisheries sectors of the country. It has state-of-the-art mini amphitheater equipped with 30 computer workstations capable of high-speed internet access to facilitate patent searching for trainees.

About 25 professionals from various government, international and regional organizations joined the said activity. (DCABaracol)

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