Hand-in-Hand: IP Protection and Mental Health Technology in 2025

The second day of the series entitled, “Teknolunas 2025 Mindful Innovation: Policy, Ethics, and Regulation in Mental Health Tech.”Teknounas 2025 is an interdisciplinary conference that gathers scientists, researchers, leaders and policymakers alike to tackle innovation technology regarding mental health. The second day of the event occurred on October 23. It was organized by De La Salle University, Evelyn D. Ang, Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Health Technologies. The event was in operation with EPI Academy and in media partnership with The Lasallian and Archers Network. The event was also supported and funded by DOST, PCHRD and Evelyn D. Ang Charities.

The event’s opening remarks were led by Professor Raymond Girard R. Tan, PhD., who is the Vice President of Research and Innovation in the De La Salle Intellectual Property Office (DIPO) Team. Mr. Peter Immanuel Tenido introduced the first plenary speaker, Atty. Christopher E. Cruz, PhD., the director of DIPO and manager of the De La Salle University Innovation and Technology Office (DITO). He gave a lecture on intellectual property and mental health technologies. Specifically, he discussed the challenges, opportunities and relationship of such within the context of the Philippines. He also examined the balance between protecting the rights of inventors in the medical field as well as the benefits of public access to such technologies.

After the lecture, a panel discussion was held regarding the same topic, with the members being Dr. Lordes Marie, Tejero, Mr. Michael Jorge N. Peralta, MSc, MSPT, LLM., Engr. Kenbert Alan I. Ting, MBA., and Engr. Roy Vincent C. Perez. Some notable topics mentioned were how the Philippines does not have a proper ecosystem with regards to the commercialization of medical devices. One other important topic was the idea of replacing human care with AI technology in terms of mental health care; most panelists generally did not agree with the sentiment. Afterwards, all speakers were awarded certificates of participation after the discussion.