Business World
BY JESSICA ANNE D. HERMOSA, Senior Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES has highlighted continued seizures of fake goods and pending reforms as it again batted to be removed from a US piracy watch list.
Such "holistic" operations should persuade the United States to tag the country as "intellectual property friendly," the IP Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said in a submission for an ongoing review in Washington.
A locally based private sector group, however, countered that not much improvement had been seen so far with police work, for instance, lagging as confirmed in the IPOPHL submission.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has solicited comments for an out-of-cycle review of the IP regimes in the Philippines and Thailand, a move that could either result in removal from the watch list or a downgrade to the priority list by early next year.
The USTR effort is designed to guide Washington’s fight against the IP rights violations abroad and, in extreme cases, could trigger trade sanctions.
The IPOPHL insists, however that "the Philippines is very mindful of the value and importance of IP rights."
The state agency cited improvements implemented this year after the US complained about "insufficient" enforcement against piracy, "inefficiencies in the judicial system" and uncompleted work to strengthen IP laws.
Various government units, for instance, confiscated P4.369 billion worth of fake goods from January to November, the IPOPHL said.
This, however, was 23% lower than the P5.681-billion haul for the full year of 2009, data from the submission showed.
The weaker performance was largely due to a drop in confiscations by the Philippine National Police to just P306 million so far for 2010 compared to the full-2009 tally of P2.422 billion.
But the IPOPHL emphasized that confiscations were just a part of enforcement efforts, noting further that it has "secured the commitment" of the Greenhills Shopping Center -- a retail hot spot tagged by the USTR -- to ban lessees from selling fake goods.
The state agency went on to report that efforts to amend IP laws and set up specialized courts to speed up the processing of cases were moving forward.
"The proposed Special Rules on IP Litigation is now being reviewed by a special committee in the Supreme Court prior to its submission to the court en banc for approval. It is expected that the said special rules will be passed and approved early next year," it said.
Rights holders will also have to do their part to pursue cases to increase the number of convictions, it added.
Bills to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet Treaties and thus update the country’s laws to cover online crime are also set to be approved, the agency claimed.
The IPOPHL also listed other efforts such as work to set up a warehouse for the free storage of seized goods awaiting court decisions, office orders granting it the authority to issue restraining orders against violators, and the passage of the anti-camcording act in Congress.
"The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) submits this comment to the USTR in relation to the 2010 Out-of-Cycle Review... It is envisioned that the Philippines will be considered an IP-friendly country," the agency said.
Sought for comment, the locally based private sector group IP Coalition rejected the government’s claims of significant improvements in the country’s IP regime.
"Our assessment is that the only thing moving is the IPOPHL," IP Coalition Chairman John J. Lesaca said in a telephone interview yesterday.
"We still are waiting for judiciary rules for IP cases. The law to implement the WIPO treaty is not moving. And as far as enforcement is concerned, it is still lackluster. The police have a lot of other concerns this year," Mr. Lesaca added.
"Frankly, I do not see the Philippines being removed from the watch list... We want everyone on their toes."
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