AIPO staff finish international distance learning courses on IP

The Ateneo Intellectual Property Office (AIPO) team continues to add more badges under its belt as more members complete another set of distance learning courses from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy. In January 2023, some members of the AIPO (Ms Madielaine Fatallo, Ms Vanessa Malapit, and Ms May Ann Udtojan) successfully completed their courses on Patent Searching (DL 318) under the WIPO Academy. A certificate course like this typically ranges from 1 to 3 months long, where enrollees go through prescribed readings, attend online class discussions, and towards the end, take a course examination to receive a certificate of completion. Ms Mariela Alcaparas, Mr Steve Chaves, and Mr Bryan Erfe have also completed similar courses in the past from WIPO Academy.

Photo: WIPO Academy 2022 graduates from AIPO

In February 2023, Ms Mariela Alcaparas, and Ms Madielaine Fatallo both started attending Harvard University’s CopyrightX, following the successful completion of the Head of the Protection and Education Group, Ms Vanessa Malapit, and AIPO’s Director, Dr Jon Fernandez Jr. The CopyrightX program is a networked 3-month virtual course that explores the current law of copyright; the impact of that law on art, entertainment, and industry; and the ongoing debates concerning how the law should be reformed. As with WIPO Academy, enrollees of CopyrightX also go through prescribed readings, attend online class discussions, and take an examination towards the end of the course. Ms Fatallo is also taking Harvard University’s PatentX program, an online course on patent law and global public health.

Photo: HarvardX Program Certificate

By investing in its associates by sending them to these types of training, a sense of trust, competency, and engagement among an organization’s members is developed since new skills are added to their arsenal. The continuous expansion of skills, however mode it may be, is a constant professional and personal need in order to adapt to the ever-changing world. It is an especially important practice for an IP office to do so, as they regularly deal with innovations and trending technologies.