Senate OKs amendments to IPR

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate has ratified a bicameral conference committee report on a bill seeking to amend the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines to penalize violators of intellectual property rights of Filipinos.

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., sponsor of Senate Bill 2842, said the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) had recommended the Philippines and 12 other countries to be placed in the Priority Watchlist of the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) in 2011.

“To be included in the USTR’s Priority Watch List means that countries do not provide an adequate level of IPR protection, enforcement or market access for persons relying on intellectual property protection,” he said.

Villar said the passage of the Anti-Camrecording Act of 2009 had prompted the removal of the Philippines from the USTR’s out-of-cycle review last year.

“We owe it to our artists, composers, writers, designers, programmers, scientists, animators and Filipino professionals to protect their body of work against copyright infringement,” he said.

The Philippines had been in the lower level Watchlist since 2005.

“The bicameral committee report added mechanisms to protect the Filipino performers; subjecting the importation and exportation of infringing materials to the approval of the Secretary of Finance with the Commissioner of Customs authorized to make rules and regulations to prevent the importation or exportation of infringement articles.