The Philippines remained out of the European Commission’s (EC) list of countries that pose concerns to the intellectual property (IP) interests of businesses in the European Union (EU), preserving its attractiveness as an investment destination.
The EC’s watchlist is part of a biennial staff working document that elaborates IP rights protection and enforcement concerns posed by third countries on both online and offline environments.
The latest report, released last April 27, made no mention of the Philippines, marking the second consecutive reporting year that the country is out of the list.
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) attributed the delisting to several major IPR developments that include the Supreme Court’s 2020 Special Rules on the Prosecution of IP Cases, which institutionalize reforms that improve judicial proceedings; the committee-level progress in Congress of bills containing amendments to the IP Code, among which is increasing penalties against IP violators and giving IPOPHL authority to order online sellers to take down infringing posts; strengthened powers of IPOPHL’s Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Office (IEO) among others.
Rowel Barba, IPOPHL director-general, said a strong IP protection and enforcement is one of the key qualities in ensuring the Philippines continue to pull in investments and promote technology transfer.
EU is the Philippines’ largest foreign investor as a bloc with foreign investment stock reaching 13.8 billion euros in 2019 and was in the same year the country’s fourth largest trading partner.
