THE INTELLECTUAL Property Office of the Philippines this year expects to top the value of counterfeit goods seized in 2009 worth around P5.6 billion.

In an interview, IP Philippines director general Ricardo Blancaflor said that the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights, of which the government agency was a part, had already seized around P1.4 billion worth of counterfeit items in the first half of the year.

While this figure was still a long way from the P5.6 billion worth of goods that had been seized last year, Blancaflor said the bulk of seizures usually took place in the latter part of the year.

Topping last year?s P5.6-billion haul is still a feasible target, he said.

?We?re confident that we?ll be able to surpass last year?s performance,? Blancaflor said.

The NCIPR seizes all sorts of counterfeit goods, including video replicating machines, pirated CDs and DVDs, and fake merchandise, ranging from clothes and shoes to fast moving consumer goods and grocery items.

In an earlier interview, he suggested that a pool of full-time prosecutors be assigned on IP violation cases to help curb rampant cases of piracy in the country.

He said enforcement was the agency?s ?weakest point? as it did not have its own operating unit to enforce IP laws.