Intellectual Property Rights

MANILA, Philippines – The local manufacturing and outsourcing sectors are the biggest software pirates in the country, due mainly to the large number of computers that they use in their operations.

SOFTWARE piracy is a serious problem in the Philippines, but more Filipinos are becoming aware that the use of unlicensed programs is illegal, according to anti-piracy group Business Software Alliance.

Thousands of workers, mostly from malls and small retailers in Binondo, Quiapo, Sta. Cruz in Manila, and Baclaran in Parañaque may lose their jobs due to “unwarranted raids” on these small businesses by government agents, the Department of Labor and Employment yesterday said.

MANILA, Philippines – Businesses should continue to pursue innovation even when the economy is bad, according to the head of the government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

MANILA, Philippines – Various groups have expressed support for the creation of a special court that will try intellectual property (IP) violations.

Movie directors, composers, authors, legal experts, policy-makers and others are meeting here this week to discuss the “threats and opportunities” the Internet poses to copyright in the digital age.

MANILA, Philippines–The level of software piracy in the Philippines remains at 69 percent in 2008 but revenue losses increased to $202 million, according to a recent global report by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

The government’s top anti-piracy official said powerful lobby groups in Washington are to blame for the country’s retention in the watch list of the United States Trade Representative on copyright piracy.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will remain in the Watch List of the US Trade Repre-sentative (USTR) office because the US said that the government failed to put a true deterrent mechanism to prevent people from infringing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

MANILA, Philippines—The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines continues to work on the strengthening of the country’s intellectual property environment, in a bid to be removed from the United States Trade Representative’s Special 301 Report Watch List.

US tags hawker centers as ‘piracy hotspots’   THE US Trade Representative Office (USTR) has tagged Quiapo and Binondo in Manila, Greehills in San Juan, Makati Cinema Square, as well as Metrowalk in the Ortigas Business District, as “piracy hotspots.”

WASHINGTON – The Philippines was placed on a lower level watch list of intellectual property rights violators along with 32 other trade partners by the United States government, reports from the capital said Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines continues to be on the US Trade Representatives’ Special 301 “ordinary” watch list amid efforts to curb all forms of intellectual property piracy in the country.

The Philippine government’s recent efforts to intensify intellectual property (IP) protection in the country should be enough for the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to remove the country from its Special 301 report watch list, an Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines) official said.