PH, Japan step up anti-piracy fight

SCREENGRAB from www.meti.go.jp

The Philippines and Japan have strengthened their cooperation in protecting intellectual property (IP) rights.

Japan Patent Office (JPO) commissioner Hitoshi Ito and Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (Ipophl) director general Ricardo R. Blancaflor forged a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) in Tokyo last month, according to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti).

The agreement will pave the way for JPO’s hosting of training missions from Ipophl as well as the introduction of a patent examiner exchange program, the Japan Ministry said in a statement.

“Based on the MOC, the JPO will dispatch patent examiners to the [Philippines] as lecturers in a training program for examination practices in the field of mobile technology,” the Japanese agency added.

In a text message on Friday, Blancaflor said the agreement would also involve data sharing between the Philippine and Japanese agencies to facilitate research, as well as joint training of their respective enforcement units.

Ipophl last year formed the IP Rights Enforcement Office (IEO) after the agency was granted enforcement and visitorial powers under Republic Act No. 10372 or the amended IP Code.

The IEO cannot only receive complaints and reports on IPR violations but also act on these by issuing visitorial, compliance and mission orders to business establishments or entities suspected to be engaged in piracy.

Previously, police powers were limited to the anti-piracy units of the law enforcement agencies belonging to the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights, which includes the Bureau of Customs, National Bureau of Investigation, Optical Media Board and Philippine National Police.

Meti explained that JPO was strengthening its intellectual property protection efforts in partnership with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members as investment and trade relations with the region flourished.

“As the Japan-Asean economic relationship continues to deepen, it is becoming ever more important for Japan to appropriately protect the IP rights of such Japanese enterprises that develop their business in the region,” Meti said.

The agency noted that Japan’s exports to Asean are the third biggest, next only to the United States and China. It said that during fiscal year 2012, Japanese firms have more subsidiaries in the so-called Asean-5 countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand—than in China. Ben O. de Vera