DOST Sec. Montejo to grace 2011 Reg’l Invention Contests in Cebu City

By Fayette C. Riñen

CEBU CITY, August 15 (PIA) -- Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo will grace the three-day 2011 Regional Invention Contests and Exhibits in Cebu City that will kick off on Wednesday, August 17 to witness and promote the innovative inventions and designs of inventors in Central Visayas.

Under the theme “Imbensyon at Inobasyon: Kabalikat sa Pag-unlad,” the activity to be held at the Ayala Activity Center at 2:00 p.m. will feature the Regional Invention Contest, invention fair, and exhibit and other invention development activities to promote the commercialization of inventions and technologies.

The activity is also a venue to select the regional winners as finalists who will vie for the major awards during the National Invention Contest in July 2012.

Inventors will vie for six category awards which are the Outstanding Invention (Tuklas Award), Outstanding Utility Model, Outstanding Industrial Design, Outstanding Creative Research (Likha Award), Outstanding Student Creative Research (Sibol Award) for high school students and Outstanding Student Creative Research (Sibol Award) for college students.

High school and college students as well as private sector inventors are encouraged to showcase their original product or design and that in case their invention is chosen in any of the category awards, the next level will be the national competition.

Under RA 7459 otherwise known as “Inventors and Invention Incentives Act of the Philippines,” original designs and inventions of Filipino inventors should be protected and encouraged through the granting of benefits in the form of cash grants, funding assistance and tax incentives.

Government on the other hand, will assist Filipino inventors to commercialize their product or creations for public utilization and to register their inventions to the Intellectual Property Office to protect from infringers. (PIA 7-Cebu)