IPOPHL boosts site-blocking capability

MANILA, Philippines — The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to gain access to the latter’s alert data sharing platform.

In a statement, IPOPHL said the platform offers a list of internationally known pirated websites and could enhance IPOPHL’s site-blocking process.

It said the partnership was enabled through a letter of understanding recently signed by IPOPHL director general Rowel Barba and WIPO director general Daren Tang.

With the Philippines onboard the platform, IPOPHL gains intelligence on all the websites which other WIPO member states reasonably suspect and enlist as intellectual property (IP) infringing.

“Having access to such a vast database, IPOPHL can strengthen its review of web addresses concerned in site-blocking requests. If a website of concern is found on the WIPO Data Sharing Platform list, IPOPHL has more persuasive evidence to request the National Telecommunications Commission to disable access to the site,” Barba said.

In addition, IPOPHL can also contribute to the inventory of so-called sites of concern by uploading its own national list.

IPOPHL said it is tasked to promptly update the list to remove any web address which is not justified to be of concern or has ceased to be so.

IPOPHL deputy director general Ann Claire Cabochan welcomed a new area of cooperation with WIPO and hopes to maximize the partnership for the benefit of the creative industry.

“This partnership could help ensure the reliability and integrity of the country’s site-blocking process. This will help our creative industry thrive freely and deal proactively with piracy,” she said.

Signed in September by Barba, the site-blocking mechanism will take effect on Nov. 21. 

The mechanism is seen to address rampant piracy in the Philippines which ranked third in East and Southeast Asia in 2020 in terms of consumers admitting to visiting piracy websites.

In September, IPOPHL Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Office   supervising director Christine Pangilinan-Canlapan reported a downtrend in counterfeit and piracy reports in the first nine months, citing the agency’s partnerships and initiatives geared to address this problem.

She said the agency received a total of 236 counterfeiting and piracy reports from January to September.

Of the total, 153 are reports on pirated content, while 83 were reports on counterfeit goods.

Over half of the reports on pirated content or 57 percent were for software, while 43 percent were for shows and movies.