Announcement - New member of The Lawyer Network in Philippines

Ignacio S. Sapalo is the current Managing Partner of the Sapalo Velez Bundang & Bulilan Law Offices which was established in 1976 and was the winner of the 2010 Asia IP Awards for Trademarks. His areas of law expertise range from trademark, copyright, and patent protection, prosecution, and enforcement, infringement, unfair competition, opposition, cancellation, and other violations of intellectual property, technology transfer and licensing arrangements, customs recordal, and other related commercial practices.

Recognized as the “Father of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (IPCode)”, he was the former Director of the then Bureau of Patents, Trademarks, and Technology Transfer (now the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines) who worked on the passing of the IPCode in 1998 which aligned Philippine intellectual property laws with international standards and practices.

Ignacio is the author of the book entitled, “Background Reading Material on the Intellectual Property System of the Philippines” published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and was a Lecturer in WIPO seminars and Consultant on intellectual property matters of the Department of Trade and Industry in 1996 and the ASEAN Secretariat in 1998. He remains to be a Professor and a Bar Reviewer of Intellectual Property at the Ateneo de Manila School of Law. A firm believer in fuelling the fire of genius of Filipinos through the effective use of the patent system, Ignacio tirelessly lends his expertise to different schools who wish to develop, protect, and market their inventions.

Founder and President of the Intellectual Property Foundation (IPF) and member of the Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ICCP), Chairman of ICCP’s Intellectual Property Commission, and President of IPROBE, Inc., an intellectual property investigation agency, he continues to be a member of numerous local and foreign organizations such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Philippine Bar Association, the Association Internationale Pour La Protection De La Propriete Industrielle (AIPPI), and the Intellectual Property Association of the Philippines (IPAP).

In 2011, Ignacio was chosen by Corporate INTL as the Philippine Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year. He was recognized by the IP Star of the Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) in 2014 as one of the leading IP lawyers in the following areas: trademark prosecution, enforcement and litigation and copyright contentious. He has been identified as an IP Star in the 22nd edition of the MIP Handbook after the research was concluded for the MIP IP Stars Handbook 2015.

If you have a requirement in this area, please get in touch with Ignacio via the below profile.

We welcome Ignacio to the network and look forward to working with him on future transactions.