The Carl E. Balita Review Center (CBRC) has established itself as a powerhouse in the Philippine adult education sector, offering over 40 review programs and comprehensive training for professional licensure exams. From aspiring nurses and engineers to teachers and law enforcement officers, CBRC equips people with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in their chosen fields.
Founded in 2004, CBRC is now the biggest review center in the Philippines, with 181 branches nationwide, as well as branches in Canada, Hong Kong SARC, Indonesia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America. In addition to being the first and only review center in the Philippines certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the CBRC has also received multiple awards from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Philippine Franchise Association. “It’s more than a review center,” enthuses the founder and CEO Carl Balita. “I believe CBRC has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people we’ve mentored.”
Maintaining and expanding an IP portfolio
The remarkable success and global expansion of CBRC, however, came in part at the expense of a focused approach on the company’s intellectual property (IP). In 2023, CBRC sought to rectify this by sending three of its staff to WIPO’s Intellectual Property Management Clinic (IPMC) for enterprises in the Philippines, hosted jointly by the WIPO Singapore Office and the IP for Business Division. The IPMC is a four-month global program launched in 2021. It supports in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a range of industries to formulate IP strategies based on their respective business plans and IP portfolios. The program focuses on IP-related aspects of the enterprises’ products, processes and technologies across the entire business cycle from the perspective of both an IP right (IPR) holder and a user of third parties’ IPRs. The selected businesses participating in the program will receive personalized as well as group mentorship, expert advice and follow-on training to better manage and leverage their IP assets.
Experts conducting the IPMC uncovered several issues with CBRC’s IP portfolio. “The IPMC was an eye-opener,” recalls Lyca Balita, CBRC’s Legal Counsel. “The education industry is IP-heavy, and the IPMC helped us realize that we needed to take steps to protect our IP, especially with regard to copyright and trademarks.”
For example, after learning from legal experts at the IPMC that it is important to check if existing IP registrations were being maintained, Lyca and her colleagues discovered that only two of the six registrations in the Philippines were still active; the other four having been abandoned for non-compliance with the mandatory maintenance requirements. CBRC has now engaged the services of an IP agent to manage their filings and maintain their registrations.
Another issue raised in the IPMC was the company’s lack of overseas IP protection. Following her participation in the IPMC, Lyca reviewed CBRC’s trademark registrations for the countries where it has a presence. The company has since successfully registered CBRC’s trademark in Hong Kong SARC, its first international registration.
e-Learning brings IP challenges
A particular concern for CBRC was the ownership of teaching materials and audio-visual recordings made by the company’s lecturers and contractors. The use of these resources has increased significantly in recent years. In response to the changing education landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic, CBRC has relied on online learning platforms to continue teaching students from different locations.
“We have made available all our analog books into digital format so that anyone can access these materials,” says Carl. “The shift to e-learning has had a positive impact on the various branches of CBRC nationwide. It is a decision we are glad we made.” With these innovations, however, CBRC would need to make sure that the ownership of videos or lectures on online platforms was clearly laid out in the company’s engagement and service agreements with its lecturers and contractors.
CBRC is now focusing on ensuring that remuneration of contractors, confidentiality and waiver of rights are included in such agreements. And with a better understanding of trade secrets and confidential information thanks to the IPMC, the company has now implemented stricter internal policies and protocols for the management of sensitive information.
An IP-driven business strategy
After its “eye-opening” experience with the IPMC, CBRC is now aligning its business strategy with IP protection. The company’s collaboration with legal experts, together with the inclusion of IP considerations in its policies and agreements, have demonstrated its commitment to safeguarding its IP assets and fostering sustainable business leadership and growth – both in the Philippines and around the world.
