Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Director General Teodoro C. Pascua said artificial intelligence could become a powerful engine for transforming Filipino ideas into globally competitive products, provided innovation is matched with stronger protection of intellectual property rights.
Speaking at the Forum on Leveraging Intellectual Property to Enable Innovation and Fuel Inclusive Growth on Monday, Pascua said the rapid rise of AI makes it more urgent to build an “IP-centric culture” that encourages innovation while safeguarding the rights of creators.
“AI is transforming how we create, invent, communicate, and do business. It offers extraordinary opportunities for Filipino innovators to develop new products, services, and creative works. But AI also reminds us why IP matters,” he said.
Pascua said AI can help accelerate research, product development and creative work, but its full economic value will only be realized if innovators protect their inventions and respect existing intellectual property. He noted that the growing use of AI has also raised new questions over copyrighted materials used to train AI models, AI-generated content, deepfakes and automated media.
Quoting World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Daren Tang, Pascua said AI has the potential to reshape innovation itself while creating both opportunities and challenges for the global intellectual property ecosystem.
“The question is whether we are prepared to seize those opportunities. That is why we are also looking at how we can use AI to further our work in IP,” he said.
Pascua said the country’s ambition should extend beyond increasing patent and trademark filings. The bigger challenge, he said, is turning protected ideas into businesses, technologies and creative works that generate jobs, exports and inclusive economic growth.
His remarks reflect a broader shift in innovation policy. As AI makes it easier to create new products and content, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on how effectively countries commercialize and protect those ideas.
For the Philippines, Pascua said, AI should amplify rather than replace human creativity. Backed by stronger collaboration among government, industry and academe, intellectual property can serve as the bridge that converts Filipino ingenuity into globally competitive innovations with real commercial value.
