Case Study 7- A Bold Step into the Modern Economy & A Remote Solution for a Global Opportunity

1. ADAMSON UNIVERSITY
Submitted by:
GARCIA, Vladimier
PAGLINAWAN, Paul Joseph
SUNGA, Khaylle
Submitted to:
Prof. Dr. Tomas U. Ganiron Jr.
CE308 INTELECTUAL PROPERTY

2. • is a cooperative for agrarian reform established in 1991, in Lanipga, Bula, a
municipality in the province of Camarines Sur. formerly called (until 1991) the
People’s Coalition for Unity on Agrarian Reform Integrated Action (PECUARIA)
• consisting of 426 producers (in 2012), the cooperative was created following land
reforms in the country in the early 1990s. During this period, hundreds of hectares of
arable land in Lanipga was made available for the organization’s use by the
Philippine government.
• PDCI’s members in the co-operative has diversified their product range to sugar,
organic feltilizer and poultry goods

4. • PDCI diversified its use of assets (including land and products) and forged new
partnerships with key organizations. In this way, the cooperative was also able to
unite producers, invest in modern R&D facilities and open new credit lines and
markets for its members.
• PDCI partnered with the Department of Agrarian Reform of the country and the
Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas
(PhilDHRRA) and collaborated with the Diocese of Caceres in order to facilitate
dialogue between producers in the community. After three year of these important
partnerships they won a legal battle than in able them to become sole owners of the
land
• Having received title to their lands, the cooperative’s farmers divided themselves
into five main production units – developed in order to avoid competition over the
same products, these clusters specialized in different farming products

5. • A new period of prosperity began in 1994, however, when the cooperative expanded
its engagement with key partners within the community and in industry. PDCI
benefited from membership of the Bicol chapter of Pambansang Kilusan ng mga
Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA) – a farmers’ confederation that aims to empower
rural communities in the Philippines.
• Working with PAKISAMA and others, PDCI was able to lobby relevant government
agencies, win major legal concessions and open credit lines for producers
• PDCI was also provided 2 million pesos in financial loans by the Philippine
Development assistance Program . PDCI was able to invest in training its farmers and
also an investment to a new rice- growing method

7. • PDCI’s MASIPag Rice Technology (MRT) is a farming method (run over a two year
period) which teaches farmers how to identify and cultivate rice varieties that are
best suited for their land. Through these method they were able produce new rice
varities which they are known for Pecuria Selections
• PDCI, moreover, employed 22 fulltime staff and operated a number of production
facilities including a rice mill, a fertilizer plant, a solar powered flatbed dryer (for
rice grains) and delivery trucks.
.

8. • In order to break into new markets with quality goods and brands, PDCI partnered
with UMFI and helped in training the cooperative to adapt in a modern economy like
training farmers on modern sales and procurement and improved their
competitiveness by implementing key technologies and adding value to products.
• Perhaps the most significant development in this partnership occurred when UMFI
became PDCI’s official marketing partner. In this capacity, the branding organization
took over the marketing and product development portfolio of the cooperative by
helping PDCI identify primary products.
• UMFI and the farmers’ cooperative incorporated internationally recognized quality
standards in PDCI’s farms including those established by the World Fair Trade
Organization Philippines (WFTO-Phils)

9. • With national and international labels of quality on its attractively designed rice and
sugar products the cooperative has reassured both business clients and end
consumers of its products’ high standards.
• PDCI and UMFI had a variety of value-added, branded products including organic
white, brown, black, and pink rice; unpolished violet rice; blended rice; premium
polished red rice; muscovado sugar; sugar cane syrup; and bio-organic fertilizer.
• 80% of the cooperative’s goods were distributed by UMFI in over 500 supermarkets
and large trading centers in Metropolitan Manila, the most populous area in the
Philippines. The remainder of PDCI’s products was commercialized via local
supermarket chains and in towns surrounding the Bula municipality.
• Also in 2012, the cooperative had entered regional markets including Hong Kong, the
People’s Republic of China.

10. • PDCI and UMFI secured its position in the healthy foods market for rice and sugar
products in the Philippines by registering trademarks for F&C Farms and Cottages
(2009, for sugar and rice products), Healthy Rice (2010, for rice goods), and Fair Trade
Quality That Cares & Device (2010, for muscovado sugar and rice products) via the
Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines.
• With secure IP assets, UMFI (and its farming partner) has been able to develop and
promote organic rice and sugar brands with confidence across the Philippines and
into the international market.
• Bringing brand recognition to the farmers of Bula, these trademarks have attracted
new business clientele and end consumers while distinguishing the organization’s
products from those of competitors.

11. • PDCI and UMFI secured its position in the healthy foods market for rice and sugar
products in the Philippines by registering trademarks for F&C Farms and Cottages
(2009, for sugar and rice products), Healthy Rice (2010, for rice goods), and Fair Trade
Quality That Cares & Device (2010, for muscovado sugar and rice products) via the
Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines.
• With secure IP assets, UMFI (and its farming partner) has been able to develop and
promote organic rice and sugar brands with confidence across the Philippines and
into the international market.
• Bringing brand recognition to the farmers of Bula, these trademarks have attracted
new business clientele and end consumers while distinguishing the organization’s
products from those of competitors.

12. • PDCI was recognized by the country’s Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) via the
Outstanding Agrarian Reform Community award. Four years later, PDCI’s Bamboo
Manufacturing Project was judged to be the Best Livelihood Project by the
Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines.
• PDCI’s productivity and market access continued to grow so that by 2006 over 233
supermarket outlets all over the country stocked PDCI’s rice and sugar products and
brands. This amounted to 25 million PHP compared to 1.5PHP million in 2001.
• PDCI’s strategic partnerships, hard work and utilization of the IP system, the
cooperative’s producers have seen their quality of life and farming capacity
improved, their environment sustained, their incomes increased and their prospects
of a better future placed on a firm footing.

13. • Mr. Anantharaman Lakshminarayanan (Lux for short) was a researcher
working on security protocols and algorithms for personal content digital rights
management (DRM) at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), a research
and development (R&D) institute under the Agency for Science, Technology
and Research (A*STAR) of the Republic of Singapore (Singapore).
• At lunch, he wanted to access his personal files but realized that he had
accidentally lost his external storage device. Lux realized that what happened
to him can easily happen to anyone, While on his way home, he thought that if
he was able to develop protocols for secure data sharing among different
people, he should be able to use his experience to develop a device that
enables secure data sharing between his personal devices.

14. • Lux spent the next few months researching different available options for
secure data sharing and how they could be used in a new invention.
• With so many different applications requiring passwords – work email,
personal email, Internet banking, databases, and so on – he knew that many
people would balk at the idea of having to remember yet another password
just to access their data.
• Lux's research then turned to online “cloud” data storage, which is networked
online storage hosted on computer servers by third parties.

15. • While his research found this to be a rather popular solution, the third parties
providing the storage technically have unauthorized access to a user's
sensitive data.
• Lux already had a solution in mind – the incorporation of a remote access
software application with a Universal Serial Bus (USB, a communication
protocol for computers) device about the size of a portable flash storage drive
– but he was not sure how to make it not only secure, but also simple enough
for a novice computer user to use.

16. • Lux saw his USB flash storage device plugged into his computer
and realized that he could create a USB device that splits into two,
where one half is plugged into the computer and the other half is
taken with the user and plugged into another computer.
• He quickly explained his idea to Kal, who was intrigued by the
concept and its simplicity but was sure something like it was already
invented.
• After conducting searches of literature, patents and available
products, the two realized that there nothing like it had ever been
developed.

17. The first generation prototype of iTwin, formerly called Twin USB
(Photo: iTwin)

18. • Lux and Kal's research paid off when they developed a two-sided USB key
that, when unplugged and connected to two computers that have Internet
access, can provide secure access to the same files between the two
machines.
• The iTwin can be split into two halves, both of which can connect to a
computer's USB port. The part of the device that stays plugged into the
computer is the “home unit,” and the part that goes with the user is the
“portable unit.”
• There is no manual software installation required and plugging either USB end
of the paired device into a computer (for example, a user's home computer)
will open up a virtual folder.

19. • Any files that the user wants to access remotely are placed into this folder,
into which they are virtually copied. From the user's perspective the files
appear to be copied, but in actuality this “copying” is simply telling the device
what files are to be shared.
• After this, the user can unplug the portable unit portion of the device while the
home unit stays connected to the home computer. The portable unit can then
be taken and plugged into any remote computer with an Internet connection.
• Once it is connected, the iTwin gives the user full access to all the files
securely shared in the virtual folder back on the home computer. It also will
create a virtual folder on the remote computer, and grant access to any files in
that folder to a user of the home computer (should there be one).

20. • Changes can be made directly to any shared file on either computer without
the need to first copy the file locally.
• An ingenious part of the invention is that both a remote user and a user at the
home computer can make changes to any shared file on either computer
without the need to copy it or save different versions.
• No user created passwords, technical support or complicated setup
procedures are necessary, and the only requirement for the two keys on both
computers to securely communicate is an Internet connection.

21. • Lux and Kal knew that they had a breakthrough invention with real
marketability in their hands, but without adequate funding it would probably be
relegated to the drawing board. In addition, they also wanted to protect their
invention from any possible copiers vying to cash in on their hard work.
• The two drew up detailed plans for their invention and presented it to I2R’s IP
Review Committee (the Committee), which evaluates inventions for potential
IP protection and commercial application.
• The Committee was not convinced of the value of the invention and its
commercial potential.
• But the inventors persevered and managed to convince the Senior Vice
President of the Science and Engineering Commercialization Division of
Exploit that the iTwin indeed had commercial potential.

22. • In February 2008, A*STAR filed a patent application in Singapore with the
Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and internationally through
the Patent Cooperation Treaty(PCT) system for its invention.
• In January 2011, the patent was granted (Application #2010076842) in
Singapore by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.

23. • With a company established, Lux and Kal knew that protecting their name was
vital to developing a strong brand image.
• The original name for their invention was “Twin USB”, but because of
trademark concerns surrounding the use of “USB,” the inventors decided upon
the “iTwin” name.
• Because the company has only a single product, it decided that having the
same name for both company and product would be in its best interest. In
October 2010 the newly formed company applied for a trademark with IPOS
for “iTwin,” and it was officially registered (#T1013165Z) in January 2011.

24. • After a mere six months on the market, by April 2011 iTwin was already
making waves in the technology world.
• The technology has earned positive reviews in the press, and in March 2011 it
won the prestigious Red Dot product design award.
• Recognition in the technology field continued to come in, and later in
November 2011 iTwin won the Popular Science Magazine Award followed by
earning a spot in Accounting Today’s Top New Products of 2012.
• These achievements recognize iTwin’s quality and simple yet trend setting
design, and puts the company and its innovative product on the path to
commercial success.