The contribution of copyright-based industries (CBIs) to gross domestic product (GDP) has doubled from 2006 to 2010, according to Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Director General Ricardo Blancaflor.
This, he noted, is a sign of burgeoning creative industry in the country.
Blancaflor told reporters that the latest World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) Guide on Surveying the Economic Contribution of Copyright-Based Industries shows that local CBIs’ share in GDP has risen to 7.34 percent.
Blancaflor said this is significant because the CBIs’ contribution in the previous Wipo guide in 2006 was pegged at only 4.8 percent.
Blancaflor also said the CBIs’ contribution to the total work force, which back in 2006 was 11 percent, was the highest in the world for CBIs in terms of local employment.
“Second lang ang Mexico sa atin, and it could have gone up from 11 percent since 2006,” Blancaflor said.
The IPOPHL said the local creative industries, such as film, music and publishing, are picking up because of the faster accreditation by the collective management organizations.
Collective management is the regulation and exercise of copyright and related rights through an organization acting in the interest and in behalf of the owners of the rights.
Blancaflor credited the strength of the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry to the strength of the intellectual property (IP) protection. The industry relies heavily on data privacy as information-technology-BPO companies move large amounts of data across borders.
“Will they grow that big if hindi malakas ang copyright protection? They thrive because malakas ang IP,” Blancaflor said.
Given the rising value of seizures of counterfeit products and the improving IP protection in the country, Blancaflor is confident the Philippines will be kept out of the annual United States Trade Representative (USTR) Office’s watch list of weak IP regimes. “They have no reason to bring us back,” Blancaflor said.
The IPO Office has seized P9.528 billion worth of counterfeit products as of the third week of November, an improvement of above 25 percent from the previous year.