THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), in coordination with intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement agencies, has seized some P3.3 billion worth of counterfeit products as of September, surpassing 2015’s full-year haul of P2 billion.
“We have an increased value of seized goods today. The record shows P3.3 billion as of September, an increase from last year’s P2 billion for the whole 2015,” IPOPHL Director General Josephine R. Santiago said at the sidelines of the sixth Philippine Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit.
Some P2 billion of this year’s haul comprise mostly of fake watches that were seized in two operations conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Customs in Manila.
The IPOPHL, however, admitted that is not optimistic of breaching the record-high haul of counterfeit goods accomplished in 2014, which amounted to P13.3 billion.
IPOPHL Deputy Director General Allan B. Gepty called for the strengthening of IPR protection and enforcement in the Philippines, adding that there has to be unified effort from all government agencies involved.
Gepty, presenting the IPR Action Plan 2017 to 2022, cited the specific strategy to mainstream Internet Protocol (IP) policies in the government.
“Our goal in the next six years is to encourage more government agencies to come up with their own IP policies,” Gepty said. Specifically, the IPOPHL envisions the creation of regional IPR committee, similar to the inter-agency National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR).
“We hope to establish one for the Visayas and one in Mindanao so the law-enforcement agencies in those areas can coordinate easily with the NCIPR,” Gepty added.
The NCIPR is the Philippines’s anticounterfeiting committee that aims to protect and enforce IPR in the country.
The NCIPR consists of several government departments and agencies as members, which are the following: Department of Trade and Industry, IPOPHL, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Bureau of Customs; National Telecommunications Commission, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, Optical Media Board, National Book Development Board, Bureau of Food and Drugs and other agencies.