The Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade (TRACIT) cited the Philippines as a significant force and model of success in the ASEAN region in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said Monday.
According to the TRACIT report titled “Fighting Fakes, Contraband and Illicit trade : Spotlight on the Philippines”, the Philippines emerged as a regional leader in promoting domestic cooperation, particularly in IP coordination because of the successful enforcement work done by IPOPHL and the National Council on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR).
The TRACIT said the NCIPR “serves as an excellent example of successful intergovernmental coordination efforts to combat counterfeiting and piracy.”
Created in 2008 through Executive Order 736, the NCIPR is a coordinating interagency body that formulates and implements plans and policies to enhance the protection and enforcement of IP rights in the Philippines. It is led by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as chair and IPOPHL as vice-chair and secretariat.
“Through the collaborative efforts of [the NCIPR’s] member agencies, the Philippines remained off the United States Trade Representative [USTR] Special 301 Watchlist for eight consecutive years since 2014. The Philippines also remained off the latest European Union (EU) IPR Watchlist released [in December 2022]… The effectiveness of the NCIPR is evidenced by a significant increase in seizures. Over a 10-year period from 2008 to 2018, the value of seized counterfeit goods grew by an average of 55 percent annually,” according to the report.
It said the NCIPR made a historic achievement by seizing almost P25 billion worth of counterfeit goods, the biggest haul in its fourteen-year history.
TRACIT also recognized IPOPHL’s intensified work in protecting IP rights in the online space, adding that its efforts to band together with law enforcement agencies, rights holders and platforms “have yielded good results.”
