CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines – Local companies in Cebu are being encouraged to maximize their intellectual property (IP) rights if they want to boost their competitiveness in the global market.

“In today’s global economy where product innovation is an important driver, companies should engage IP services to achieve significant business advantage,” said William Geert Lagemaat, chief executive officer of Global IP expert and information service provider Lighthouse Software Cebu Inc. (LHSCI).

The company has its headquarters in The Netherlands and is operating in seven other countries like China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Belarus and the United States.

LHSCI’s core services, among various others, are IP information, data and translation.

The firm’s advanced IP services include access to 11 million Japanese patents and 4.9 million Chinese patents, both searchable in full English texts.

Lagemaat said as more local companies venture into outsourcing as a business strategy, these should be amply protected.

“As companies expand their businesses to foreign markets, they need to understand the market and its local IP laws,” he said in a brief press briefing Wednesday.

The same, he said, is true for foreign companies that are planning to outsource their business to the Philippines. “Foreign companies need to understand the Philippine market and the country’s own IP laws.”