APPLICATIONS for registration of intellectual property rights (IPR) lodged with the local Intellectual Property Office (IPO) satellite desk at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Central Luzon have risen significantly.
Based on the report of the local IPO, there were 307 applications for patent, trademark, copyright, utility model and other forms of IPR registrations from different provinces in the region. In 2017, there were 178 applications made with the IPO satellite office in Central Luzon.
Registrants from the province of Pampanga made the bulk of applications with 174, while applicants from Bulacan totalled 58. There were also 25 IPR applications from Tarlac, 22 from Bataan, 18 from Nueva Ecija, seven from Aurora, and one from Zambales.
Of the 307 IPR applications processed by the local IPO, 115 were part of the “Juana Make a Mark” program of DTI, where women entrepreneurs are assisted by the agency to register the intellectual property associated with their products at discounted rates. For Central Luzon, majority of the applications are for trade names or brands, product designs, product labels and label colors.
Micro, small, and medium enterprises are encouraged to register their trademarks and IPRs with the Intellectual Property Office to ensure their legal rights to use the marks or symbols associated with their products. Republic Act No. 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code outlines the rights to trademarks, patents, industrial designs, service marks, copyrights and utility models. The Act also sets rules on the use of these marks and penalizes infringement of the legal rights of IPR holders.
The DTI, as the chairman of the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR), intends to ensure that the benefits or proceeds from the commercial use of IPR redound to the legal holder of the IPR, and to avoid undue copying and illegal use of IPO-registered trade names.
The NCIPR, a committee made up of 12 government agencies including the Intellectual Property Office, Bureau of Customs, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Food and Drug, Optical Media Board and other agencies, reported that for 2018 a total of P23.6 billion worth of counterfeit or pirated goods have been confiscated by the committee, a majority of which are fake cigarettes, alcohol products, pharmaceutical and personal care products. (PR)