EU vows support to PH intellectual property protection

THE EUROPEAN  Union Delegation to the Philippines has vowed to support Manila in its continuing effort to secure and protect the intellectual property rights of innovators, creatives, and investors, particularly during the pandemic.   

Trade Counsellor Maurizio Cellini of the EU Delegation gave the commitment during the Wednesday intellectual property forum for practitioners from Southeast Asia where he called on IPOs in the region to reassess their role in helping economies and businesses survive and remain resilient.

“With the very strong trade relations between our markets, it is therefore in our mutual interest to continue to clear market access barriers owing to inadequate protection and enforcement mechanisms that are needed to sufficiently protect IP rights," he said.

"Through the years, we have seen some improvements in the intellectual property regime of the Philippines through the efforts of the Intellectual Property of the Philippines," he added.

Intellectual property rights (IPRs), such as patents, trademarks, designs, copyrights or geographical indications help inventors and businesses prevent unauthorized exploitation of their creations. These also offer guarantees to users or consumers to identify the origin of the goods concerned.

Last January 2020, the EU announced Manila's delisting in its priority counterfeit watchlist, which ranks economies based on the level of concern and threat to the bloc's IPR holders.

The European Commission’s biennial watchlist titled the "Report on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries" attributed its decision to remove the Philippines' from Priority 3 category ― the least concerning of all three priorities, with Priority 1 economies posing the biggest threat― to the "very few complaints received from stakeholders and the increase in the relative importance of other countries for EU right holders."

This was the first time the Philippines was delisted from any Priority category. Since 2015, the country had been on Priority 3, already a downgrade from its enlistment as Priority 2 in the years prior, according to the IPO Philippines. (By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora)