Philippines remains on piracy watch-list

THE Philippines failed to extricate itself from the US government’s piracy watch list following an out-of-cycle review conducted last year, according to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).




In a statement on Thursday, IPOPHL said “the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), in its 2010 Out-of-Cycle Review, has retained the Philippines in the ordinary watch list despite numerous efforts by US groups . . . such as the International Intellectual Property Alliance and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America lobbying to downgrade the Philippines to the priority watch list.”

IPOPHL said the result of the 2010 Special 301 out-of-cycle review for the Philippines was announced by the US during the two countries’ Trade and Investment Facilitation Agreement meeting on February 24.

“The USTR has recognized the innovative and sustained efforts of the new team at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to undertake effective enforcement initiatives as well as the cooperation of law enforcement agencies in its drive to decrease availability of goods infringing intellectual property rights,” IPOPHL said.
In the 2010 Special 301 Report, the USTR noted that the “ineffective enforcement of IPR” in the Philippines “continues to be a concern.”

Separately, in a 62-page submission dated February 22 to the USTR for the 2011 Special 301 Review, IPOPHL said “a revisit of the strategies and accomplishments in previous years provided a clear picture of the problems faced by the country in combating piracy and counterfeiting.”

“Seizing opportunities and addressing the gaps in effective enforcement calls for a more ‘holistic approach’ whereby each stakeholder, IP owner, user, enforcement agencies play their respective crucial roles in safeguarding IP rights,” IPOPHL said.
“Thus, the ‘holistic approach’ was conceived as an overall strategy designed to combat piracy—to minimize at the minimum and eliminate at the maximum, the level of IPR violations in the country."

The agency said this new approach is a public-private effort wherein coordination is key “to ensure that there are no loopholes for pirates to explore and no bottlenecks remaining unclogged.”

IPOPHL noted that the joint National Committee on Intellectual Property (NCIPR) last year seized 5,091,704 pieces and 217 boxes of pirated and fake goods worth about P5.296 billion.

NCIPR groups the Bureau of Customs, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Optical Media Board and Philippine National Police (PNP).

However, last year’s confiscations were lower than the previous year’s haul of about P5.681-billion worth, as IPOPHL noted that the anti-piracy units of NBI and PNP were unable to operate amid the 2010 national elections.

But the agency said “the lack of enforcement function of IPOPHL did not deter the organization from exploring innovative ways to address IPR challenges,” as for instance, “IPOPHL sought the elusive cooperation of the management of Greenhills Shopping Center, a mall well known for selling replicas, to police their stall owners.”

“Initial reports gathered showed that counterfeit/pirated products in key target areas have significantly been reduced."

Since 2005, the Philippines has been included in the lower-level Watch List of the USTR’s annual Special 301 Report on IPR.

The Special 301 Report recommends US-imposed trade barriers or sanctions for trading partners perceived lacking in IPR protection. Manila Times