The world's patent system must be reformed to keep pace with rapid technological, corporate and social changes that are pressuring intellectual property rights, experts said Tuesday.

The reforms could include viewing patents not as a monopoly on innovations but as a way of making information about them more widely available, European Patent Office vice president Manuel Desantes told a conference in Manila.

New technology, the concentration of patents in the hands of big business and calls for more open access to patented technology -- including by poor countries for medicines -- were among the challenges to be faced, he said.

"Piracy is a cancer to a country. The more piracy, the less development," Desantes said, adding the patent system should be made entirely electronic to cope with the challenges it faced.

The conference's discussion agenda was the future of intellectual property rights and the patent system protecting them.