IPO head optimistic US will remove RP from IPR watch list

Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Director General Adrian Cristobal Jr. expressed his optimism yesterday that the US may finally downgrade the Philippines from special priority watch list to just ordinary watch list, following the completion of an out-of-cycle review that started last month.

Cristobal is even hoping that the out-of-cycle review may result in the complete removal of the Philippines from the Watch list of the Special 301 Report of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) following the government’s earnest effort to combat piracy.

The out-of-cycle review conducted last month, Cristobal explained, is already a positive signal since the USTR annually conducts a review in March or April.

There has been a push from various groups to appeal the country’s status under the USTR watch list.

Cristobal clarified that in spite of the out-of-cycle review, the Philippines would still undergo the annual review in March or April.

The government, furthermore, continues to engage in IPR education and training in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Sweden Patent and Registration Office, the Swedish Government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

The education and training course includes participants fromChina, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Zambia, Zambia, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Gambia, Nepal, Malawi, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria, Kenya, Nigeria and Iran.

Earlier, an umbrella organization of intellectual property (IP) owners has recommended that the Philippines be removed from the Priority Watch List.

In its recommendation sent to Sybia Harrison, special assistant to the Section 301 Committee of the USTR, the IP Coalition said that following a majority vote of its members, the executive committee of the IP Coalition resolved to convey to the Office of the USTR its collective sentiment that the Philippines be downgraded from the priority watch list to the ordinary watch list.

The IP coalition said that the country "has a doable, sensible and reasonable strategy aimed to ‘provide an adequate level of IPR protection or enforcement."

It added that "there is no doubt that the Philippine Action Plan has worked, is working, and bearing fruit."

The group also noted that the country, "notwithstanding the economic and material shortcomings, has nurtured a robust jurisprudence on the protection of IPRs and that the lack of funds has not deterred the Philippines from fighting piracy and counterfeiting."

The coalition made it clear, however, that its stand does not modify any individual position of its members.

The IP assembly, chaired by musician John Lesaca, counts 13 organizations representing IP stakeholders from various local industries.

Among the IP stakeholders are the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Microsoft Philippines, Asosasyon ng Musikang Pilipino Foundation (AMP), Brand Protection Association (BPA), Association of Video Distributors of the Philippines (AvidPhil), Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) and the Council to Combat Piracy & Counterfeiting of Patents Copyrights & Trademarks (COMPACT).