The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has widened its cooperation efforts to prevent the entry of fake products into the country.
“Raids are not enough,” Rowel Barba, IPOPHL director-general, told a radio interview on Saturday.
Barba also said the rules granting the IPOPHL site-blocking rites have taken effect last January 13, giving the agency more power in clamping down internet sites with pirated content.
Barba said IPOPHL through the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) is strengthening its cooperation with Asean countries, Japan and Korea to gain access to information on fake products at entry point and block them from landing Philippine shores.
He said the NCIPR continues to coordinate with brand owners which initiate the raids and seizures.
“We’ve been conducting raids for many years but fake products continue to proliferate,” Barba said.
He said IPOPHL is pushing for amendments to its mandate to give it more teeth in fighting piracy.
While the amendments are pending in Congress, Barba said IPOPHL has
drafted voluntary site- blocking rules through a memorandum circular signed in September 2023 and signed separate agreements with the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) and the telecom providers to fight off widespread piracy.
The rules took effect January 13.
“Any rights holder or copyright owner can file a complaint with IPOPHL and we can issue an order directly to the NTC and the telco to block the sites,” Barba said.
The Philippines is third in East and Southeast Asia in having the highest piracy rate.
With Memorandum Circular 23-025 or the Rules on Voluntary Administrative Site Blocking, Barba hopes to replicate the success of Indonesia where more than 50 percent of consumers have stopped or now rarely access pirate services as a result of its government’s blocking measures which started in 2019.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU), internet service providers (ISPs) commit to willingly block sites directly upon IPOPHL’s request issued after a determination of violation, thereby streamlining the current process which requires the involvement of the NTC, the agency being the primary regulator of ISPs.
Meanwhile, the memorandum of agreement with the NTC widens IPOPHL’s oversight to over 300 ISPs which are not part of IPOPHL’s site blocking MOU with ISPs, obligating them to disable access to piracy sites. – Irma Isip