Phl removal from US watchlist sought

MANILA, Philippines – The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) will seek the removal of the Philippines from the watchlist of the US Trade Representative as a country that sells counterfeit goods.

“That is a good target,” IPOPHL director general Ricardo Blancaflor said in a statement.

He said as of November 2010, P4.369 billion worth of pirated products have been confiscated by authorities, lower than the more than P5 billion worth of fake goods seized last year.

“We can do better next year in terms of enforcement,” Blancaflor said. “There is a need to empower IPOPHL to enforce the law and bring before the court people who would commit these offenses that affect our commerce and consumers,” added Blancaflor.

IPOPHL, the lead policy-making agency on intellectual property rights, co-chairs the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights. It, however, does not have enforcement powers under RA 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code.

“Our functions are mainly policy-making and regulatory. We hope to be given enforcement functions as an agency in order to serve the public better, especially the intellectual property owners like brand owners and inventors,” added Blancaflor.

House Bill 3417 and Senate Bill 2553 seek to empower IPOPHL to undertake enforcement functions supported by concerned agencies.

“We also asked Malacañang, through the DTI, for an executive issuance creating a task force for enforcement of intellectual property rights and grant visitorial powers to IPOPHL,” said Blancaflor.

Such visitorial powers include the duty “to inspect warehouses where commodities to be seized are suspected to be stored to ensure that such commodities are not being ferreted out or removed, to secure copies of documents pertaining to the nature and particulars of the commodity or goods subject of importation and to prosecute IPR violations, piracy, counterfeiting and other similar unlawful acts.”

“This will adequately equip IPOPHL to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) and provide immediate assistance to IPR owners,” Blancaflor said. –Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star)