The Philippines remains an attractive investment destination to trade partners with ample protection on intellectual property.
Rowel Barba, director-general of the Intellectual Property of the Philippines, said this in reaction to the May 17 report of the European Commission retaining the country of its IP rights watchlist for five straight years.
In a statement, Barba said this also indicates the Philippines has come a long way in maintaining a safe IP climate in tune with global economic standards.
But Barba emphasized the importance of “going beyond” the exclusion from global watch lists.
“Still, we acknowledge that there is much more work needed to be done to ensure a clean and reliable marketplace for IP rights owners across all nations. Since our last mention as a priority three in 2019, we have doubled down our efforts to safeguard our investment attractiveness, a testament to our commitment as a proactive national IP office,” Barba added, assuring the continuity of efforts to keep counterfeiting and piracy at bay.
The report, released biennially, lists priority countries based on legal uncertainties and diverging applications of the law, low level of trade secrets protection and enforcements and overall weak IPR enforcement.
