[Release Notes] September 2026: IPOPHL, COA, voice dictation, and more
Anycase.ai
Data and Accuracy
As of September 2026, Anycase’s library includes an additional 9693 documents, with a key focus on the IPOPHL, COA, CTA, Supreme Court and BIR additions.
Starting September 2026, issuances from the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the Commission on Audit (COA) are now available to all users. By incorporating these issuances, Anycase now better supports legal practitioners working in intellectual property and government who rely on current administrative issuances.
Key Additions Include:
Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL)
IPOPHL Memorandum Circular No. 2026-007 Revised Rules and Regulations on Copyright Registration and Copyright-Related Services, which helps counsel locate procedural requirements relevant to a copyright-registration application, a shift from paper-based, manual processes to streamlined, digital-first approach to improve efficiency and public access to copyright information.
IPOPHL Memorandum Circular No. 2025-009 Rules and Regulations for the Declaration and Creation of the Register of Well-Know Marks, which created the ex parte, independent administrative procedure for the declaration of well-known marks, separate from inter partes, infringement, or unfair competition cases, and the establishment of an official Register of Well-Known Marks.
IPOPHL Memorandum Circular No. 2026-001 Establishment of the New Equivalent Amounts charged by the European Patent Office (EPO), which establishes the 75% reduced rate of new equivalent amounts for the EPO search fee, effective April 1, 2026. This updates the costs for applicants seeking international patent protection via the EPO as an International Searching Authority.
Commission on Audit (COA)
COA Circular No. 2021-003 Exemption from COA Concurrence for Hiring Lawyers/Legal Consultants, which amends previous COA issuances by eliminating a key procedural hurdle. Now, national government agencies and GOCCs from the requirement of obtaining prior written concurrence from COA for the engagement of lawyers under contract of service/job order or as legal consultants, subject to specific conditions.
COA Resolution No. 2023-002 Filing Fee for Asset/Property Swap Requests, which is the explicit imposition of a filing fee on requests for approval of asset or property swaps or exchanges by government agencies, LGUs, and GOCCs, calculated as 1/10 of 1% of the higher appraised value of the assets involved, capped at P50,000.
COA Circular No. 2023-003 Special Health Fund Accounting Guidelines which is the requirement for provinces, highly urbanized cities (HUCs) and independent component cities (ICCs) to establish and maintain a separate Special Health Fund (SHF) with dedicated books of accounts and bank accounts, ensuring transparency and accountability in the management of pooled health resources.
One-off ingestions
For September 2026, we’ve added a set of targeted cases into our legal library:
Republic v. Royale Fishing Corporation, which concerns the validity of Fisheries Administrative Order No. 266 which required commercial Philippine-flagged fishing vessels to comply with vessel-monitoring and electronic-reporting requirements.
Lopez Sugar Corp. v. Perrin, which concerns an employer’s obligation to remit Social Security System contributions for illegally dismissed employees covering the period included in the backwages award, because the employees are deemed not to have left their employment. The Supreme Court also recognized the Social Security Commission’s jurisdiction over the remittance dispute and held that the claim was not barred by prior labor judgement or general waivers.
New features and releases
Voice dictation, now on beta release
Anycase now supports speech-to-text for search. Clicking the microphone button on the search bar will activate your microphone, allowing you to dictate your query instead of typing. This feature is on beta release for Pro, Pro Team and Edu users.
Enhance query button
New to AI-assisted search? The new enhance query button on the query box automatically rewrites your query before you submit it to Anycase.
Search using familiar legal abbreviations
Our Legal Intelligence Team identified cases where legal abbreviations weren’t picking up the relevant sources. To address this, we integrated a database of legal acronyms and aliases into Anycase’s search. Recognized references such as “RCC” (Revised Corporate Code) are now connected to their full names, helping Anycase find relevant documents when you use shorthand in your question.
Clearer distinction between arguments and court rulings
When you ask about a case, Anycase can now distinguish a party’s arguments from the court’s own reasoning and ruling. This can help you see what a party claimed, what a lower court decided, and what the Supreme Court ultimately held. You can now ask, “What did the Supreme Court hold, and what did the petitioner argue?” and review the cited passages to confirm.
Sign in with your organization account
If your organization has set up single sign-on (SSO) for Anycase, you can now select “Continue with SSO” on the sign-in page and log in using your organization’s account.
Here are some bug fixes and QOL improvements we did last September
In the last month, we worked on several quality of life changes to improve your user experience:
Fixed duplicate Library Catalog results. Records already marked as duplicates are filtered from catalog results, reducing repeated entries while you locate a legal authority.
Fixed an issue that could prevent a Word document preview from opening when the document had no summary. You can now preview the document even when a summary is missing
When you download a non-PDF source from the catalog or from a citation, its AI-generated summary is now included with the text. This lets you keep the summary and source together.
Open a chat from the Files page. On the Files page, hover over a linked chat’s name. It will be underlined to show you can click it and return to that conversation.
New drafts are now linked to the chat where they were created, making it easier to find the conversation they came from.
Improved subscription refund process. Anycase can now process refunds for renewal payments, including subscriptions that are already inactive. This fixes errors that could stop a refund from being processed. Refund eligibility and processing times remain unchanged.
