The recent guilty verdict against the Korean electronics giant Samsung for infringement of patents held by archrival Apple has re-ignited a longstanding debate on the role of patents in promoting technological innovation.
Senate Bill S. No. 2546, which seeks to establish a separate Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in the country, continues to generate intense debates in both the private and public sectors. First filed in August 2008, the bill seeks to achieve a number of specific goals—23 to be exact. These can be conveniently collapsed into three major objectives:
The article on this list entitled “Enroll the World in For-Profit Universities” grabbed my attention because of its apparent relevance to higher education in the Philippines. I have long argued that institutions of higher learning should be driven by loftier goals than financial gain, and I was anxious to find in the article a well-argued rationale for profit as a legitimate objective for colleges and universities. I guess I need a lot more convincing.
Long the scourge of the high seas, piracy continues to strike terror in the hearts of those who own things of value and income-generating assets that others covet. This time around, however, these riches are neither gold, nor silver nor precious stones, but wealth in the form of rights to intellectual property such as brand names, inventions, new scientific discoveries, recorded music and other works of art that have potential commercial value.
Supporters of mining in this country argue their case by underscoring the industry’s potential contribution to development. To be sure, many well-meaning public figures and organizations that champion mining as a developmental strategy, including the Management Association of the Philippines (sponsor of this column), qualify their stand by insisting that mining operations should, in addition, be “sustainable.”
On July 4 this year, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) came out with its Statement of the Week titled “A Privately Run Tourism Promotion Board: An Idea whose Time Has Come.” In this position paper, MAP noted that we are laggards in the region in tourist arrivals, despite the many things we have [...]
