Practice areas

IP; IP litigation; licensing; border control & corporate; employment law

Introduction

Editha Hechanova leads the Hechanova Group’s IP law practice. The Hechanova Group is made up of Hechanova & Co, an IP consulting firm handling trademark and patent prosecution, copyright and domain name registrations, product registration, management, valuation, searches, and other non-contentious aspects of IP, where she is president and CEO.

The contentious IP practice is handled by the other member firm, Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio, which specialises in enforcement, litigation, alternative dispute resolution, licensing, corporate, immigration law and taxation.

Hechanova graduated from the University of the East in Manila with a business degree, majoring in accounting, magna cum laude. She is a certified public accountant. She obtained her law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University and a certificate in strategic business economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific in Manila.

Hechanova is an accredited mediator of the Court of Appeals and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and an arbitrator. She is currently the vice president external of the Association of Patent Agent Qualifying Examination Professionals, consisting of certified patent agents.

She is also the vice president of the IP Collegium, an organisation of IP experts mainly in Asean, India and Brazil, sponsored by the Japan Institute for Promoting Invention and Innovation. She is the chairperson of the Asia & Pacific Sub-Committee of the Trademark Office Practice Committee of the International Trademark Association for 2022-2023.

She has been cited as a leading lawyer in IP law in the Philippines by AsiaLaw Magazine, from 2002 to 2023, Who’s Who Legal Trademarks from 2012 to 2022, and Managing IP’s IP Star. She has been cited by Asia Business Law Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the Philippines from 2018 to 2022.

During the 25th anniversary of the IP Code, the IPOPHL awarded Hechanova & Co as a top patent filer for the years 2017-2021 and top industrial design filer for 2017-2021. The Hechanova Group has been recognised as the Philippines Patent Firm of the Year at the 2021 Asia IP Awards.

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