Value of seized counterfeit goods hit P9.53B

The total value of counterfeit and pirated products seized by the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) reached a record high of P9.53 billion at the end of September this year.

This was attributed to government’s aggressive efforts to curb piracy in the Philippines.

Ricardo R. Blancaflor, director general of NCIPR member-agency Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), said in an interview that the initial tally of seizures from January to September this year had exceeded the previous high of P8.38 billion, which represented the total value of seizures for 2011.

“(This record haul was) brought about by better coordination between Bureau of Customs, National Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) under the coordination of IPOPHL. This is the record so far,” Blancaflor explained.

This year, the IPOPHL expected to seize only P7 billion worth of counterfeit or fake goods.

Most of the items confiscated as of the end of September this year were branded items, apparel, shoes, slippers, as well as bags and accessories.

The total haul covers seizures made by the NBI, BOC, Optical Media Board (OMB) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Blancaflor, meanwhile, assured the public that the IPOPHL, the government agency mandated to implement state policies on intellectual property rights enforcement, would continue efforts to strengthen copyright protection and awareness campaigns in the country.

In the recently held “Copy & Repro,” the first international conference on intellectual property policies and copyright licensing for schools and universities, Blancaflor highlighted anti-piracy efforts that allowed the Philippines to be removed from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Watch List this year after having been on the list for 20 years.

“The Philippines, which was first placed on the Watch List in 1989 and considered to be having the potential of becoming a center of pirate optical media production in Asia in 2001, was removed from the Watch List in 2014 based on sustained actions that the Philippine government has undertaken to improve intellectual property rights protection,” Blancaflor explained.

The Philippines has also been urged to establish strong copyright management as the so-called copyright industries “serve as one of the major tools for economic development.”

Examples of these industries included the press and literature, music, theater and opera, motion picture and video, radio and television, photography, software and databases, visual and graphic arts, and advertising.

A 2006 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) study on copyright industries showed that Philippine copyright-based industries contributed 4.92 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) and 11.1 percent to the national employment of the country.