Senior Partner
ejvillasanta@avaslaw.com
A Senior Partner of the Firm, Mr. Villasanta graduated from the Manuel L. Quezon University College of Law in 1958 and immediately joined the law firm of Ozaeta, Gibbs & Ozaeta Law Offices as Associate Attorney after passing the Bar. He registered as a Patent Attorney in 1960 in the Philippines Patent Office, now the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Mr. Villasanta became a Member of the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) in 1964. He attended the AIPPI Congress of Patent Attorneys in Tokyo, Japan, in 1966. In 1973, Mr. Villasanta joined the law firm of Picazo, Agcaoili, Santayana & Reyes, as head of its Intellectual Property Rights Department and became Senior Partner of Agcaoili & Associates in 1974 principally in charge of Intellectual Property Rights cases. Mr. Villasanta completed a Seminar on the Law on Intellectual & Industrial Property Rights, Law Practice and Government Regulations at the University of the Philippines on February 24, 1975, delivered the Philippine Position Paper on Intellectual Property Rights during the Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA) Ad Hoc Committee meeting at the Manila Regent Hotel in March in 1977and the Philippine Report during the APAA General Meeting in Hong Kong in July 1979. He also became a member and later Councilor of the APAA. One of the Founders of the Patent Attorneys Association of the Philippines (PAAP), Mr. Villasanta became its President in 1979. He delivered Papers on the Role of Industrial Property Laws in Promoting Indigenous, Inventive and Innovative Activities in the first Workshop in Asia and the Pacific Region organized by the WIPO and UNDP, held at the PICC on April 13-23, 1980, and the Workshop on Industrial Property Licenses and Technology Transfer Arrangements in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, organized by the WIPO and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 1980.
As President of PAAP, Mr. Villasanta headed the Philippine Delegation in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which worked for the recognition of PAAP as a National Group of the Association International Pour La Protection de la Propriete Industriele (AIPPI), in 1981. Because the Articles and Constitution of AIPPI requires that PAAP should not be limited to lawyers preparatory to its recognition as a National Group, PAAP amended its Articles and changed its name to Intellectual Property Association of the Philippines (IPAP). Mr. Villasanta was also the Head of the Philippine Group (IPAP) at the Ad Hoc Committee Meeting of APAA in Singapore on March 19-22, 1981; attended the 103 rd Meeting of the United States Trademark Association (USTA) in San Francisco, USA on May 10-13, 1981.
Mr. Villasanta attended, as President of IPAP and Head of Philippine Delegation, the AIPPI Executive Committee Meeting composed of all Presidents of Patent Associations throughout the world affiliated with AIPPI, in Moscow, Russia, from April 16-24, 1982 where the recognition of the IPAP as a National Group was taken up and subsequently approved. Attended the 104th Meeting of the USTA in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 5-8, 1982 , and the 6th General Assembly Meeting of APAA as Councilor at Pattaya, Thailand on October 22, 1982 .
Mr. Villasanta was elected President of the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) in1993, was a member of the International Bar Association (IBA) in July 1994, and the Licensing Executive Society of the Philippines (LES). Mr. Villasanta was a Bar Examiner in 1994, and Lecturer at the Workshop of newly appointed RTC Judges at the Philippine Judicial Academy of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He was also President, and subsequently Chairman, of the Law Foundation of Makati in 1995, completed the WIPO Workshop for Arbitrators in November 1996 at the World Industrial Property Organization (WIPO) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and attended as Member of the LES the Internet Advanced Seminar in June 1997 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. A recipient of various awards and certificates of recognition from the Philippine Bar Association, the Foundation for Judicial Excellence, the Association of Law Professors of the Philippines, Philippine Supreme Court, Quezon Association Foundation, including the Medal of Honor from the Province of Quezon, and other non-governmental and civic organizations. He was nominated to the Supreme Court of the Philippines by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), Quezon Chapter, Lucena City, on November 6, 1998.
Practice Areas: Intellectual Property; Corporate and Civil Law.