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Thursday, August 25, 2005
Gov’t urges exporters to register designs
To protect their product designs and maintain the country’s edge over other countries, the Intellectual Property Office-Philippines (IPO-Phil) is urging Cebu-based exporters, especially those manufacturing and exporting furniture and accessories, to register their creations.
Adrian Cristobal Jr., IPO-Phil director general, said one of the major problems of furniture and accessory manufacturers is the copying or theft of their product designs.
“I’m not sure how big a problem this is in the furniture industry compared to the optical media. But what is certain is that if we do not act now to address the problem of intellectual property violations, our creative industries will lose its competitive advantage to our neighbors, especially China,” he said during the “Mugna Namo ‘Bai” IPO-SME (small and medium enterprises) forum at the City Sports Club Cebu yesterday.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Cebu Director Nelia Navarro said the creative industry is an emerging industry in Cebu.
She defined creative industry as “a group of economic activities that transform and deploy creativity, skills and intellectual property (IP) to produce and distribute products and services of social and cultural meaning.”
“Cebu is not only a host of talents but is also a reservoir of cultural assets. The innate creative talents of the Cebuanos have made the province the design destination in Asia for furniture and accessories,” she said in an interview.
But she said most companies in Cebu do not practice protection of intellectual property rights due to some apprehensions and the cost of applying for IP protection.
A Cebuano inventor, who asked for anonymity, told Sun.Star Cebu he has registered any of his machine designs with the IPO because he fears that it will be copied by people inside that office.
Cristobal admitted that registering for IPR may be “costly” but companies must think of this as an investment and must consider the long-term effect of the protection to the company’s income.
Earlier, Iprotect administrator lawyer Andrew Ong said applying for an IPR within the country costs P800 per year and about P500,000 per year, if one applies for the IPR throughout the world.
To encourage more inventors and companies to register, the IPO-Phil plans to set up an IP assistance desk in Cebu next year.
The IPO-SME forum was organized by the Intellectual Property Alliance of Cebu, IPO Office and the DTI-Cebu. (JBN)
(August 25, 2005 issue)
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