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THE
government is still not too optimistic on the chances of
the Philippines getting deleted from the roster of
countries with serious intellectual-property-rights (IPR)
problems, or the Special 301 Watch List, being released
periodically by Washington.
Adrian
S. Cristobal Jr., director general of the Intellectual
Property Office Philippines (IP Phils.), said this is
due to the need of the country to address still the
prosecution aspect of the government’s campaign against
IPR violators here.
Since
2001 Cristobal said the country tallied only a total of
64 convictions on IPR cases, which, for the Office of
the US Trade Representative (USTR), is too low.
“We
still have to address the prosecution side. It’s still a
challenge,” Cristobal told reporters.
However,
Cristobal said the low conviction numbers could also be
due to their inability to monitor well the IPR cases
throughout the country.
With
this, Cristobal said his office is now seeking the
cooperation of different IP lawyers, law firms and
courts to inform his office regularly of the status of
their IPR cases.
“We feel
there are more convictions. We need to be informed,” he
said.
The
latest data coming from the Supreme Court showed that
there are still 511 pending cases of IPR violations.
The
majority of these cases, or about 440 of them, are in
Metro Manila courts, particularly in Manila and Quezon
City.
In late
2005 the USTR downgraded the Philippines from the
special watch list to the regular watch list, thus
easing the risk of the country getting trade sanctions
for doing less to protect IPR assets.
Till
then, however, the campaign of the government to have
the Philippines totally removed from the watch list has
not borne fruit.
With the
interagency task force that is conducting the raids
against piracy already doing well, Cristobal said his
office will now need to focus more on the prosecution
side.
To this
end, Cristobal said IP Phils. is now working
continuously with the judiciary in improving the skills
of the courts and their staff “in this specialized area
of law.”
In due
time, Cristobal said IP Phils. will appeal again for the
creation of three to four special IP courts in Metro
Manila to hasten the resolution of the pending cases.
From
January to September 2007, the government has
confiscated a total of P2.3 billion worth of pirated
items and replicating paraphernalia.
Of the
total amount, P223.29 million came from operations of
the National Bureau of Investigation, PP378.54 million
from the National Police, P879 million from the Optical
Media Board and P823.75 million from the Bureau of
Customs. |
