Philippines: IPR Committee hauls in pirated goods valued at 5 billion pesos

14 December 2007, Makati City – The National Committee for Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) reports today that member agencies engaged in IPR enforcement have seized P5.25 billion worth of pirated items since its creation in 2005. Seized goods for the year (as of November) contributed P2.75 billion to the total value.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines), the lead coordinator of inter-agency efforts against piracy and counterfeiting, gathered reports from the enforcement groups namely, the Bureau of Customs (BoC), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Optical Media Board (OMB), and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

BoC seized a total of P2.21 billion for the two-year period followed by OMB with P1.79 billion. NBI confiscated P692 million worth of fake goods while the PNP contributed P565 million to the total figure. Since the creation of NCIPR in 2005, total enforcement figures have been on a steady rise. In 2005, the enforcement agencies hauled in P1.14 billion, and in 2006, the total value was P1.35 billion.

“IP enforcement and institutional capacity-building are part of our two-pronged approach in strengthening the IPR regime of the country. This approach is one of eight sectors identified in the Philippine IP Policy Strategy, which we recently submitted to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” Atty. Adrian S. Cristobal, Jr., Director General of IP Philippines, said. “Fake products,” he added, “threaten public health and safety. These also compete unfairly with legitimate businesses, cheat government of taxes, and weaken inventor confidence in our economy.”

“More than enforcement or the raids conducted for pirated intellectual property products, a sound IP environment of the country means tapping the creativity of the Filipinos, and to

ensure that the IP system promotes innovation,” the Director General disclosed.

IP Philippines spearheaded the crafting of the Philippine IP Policy Strategy to foster a competitive and creative Philippines that uses IP as a strategic tool for national development, which is the vision of the office for the country.

Institutional capacity building and IP enforcement form part of the eight sectors in the policy strategy: public health; patent reform; universities, and research and development institutions (RDI); biodiversity and genetic resources; indigenous knowledge, systems and practices (IKSP), folklore, and geographical indications; small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and; copyright and other creative industries.

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