The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines takes pride in the country's continuous exclusion from the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) Special 301 Watchlist for 11 consecutive years, stating that it is because of its IP protection and enforcement initiatives.

On Friday, the USTR in its 2024 Special 301 Report cited the Philippines' newest E-Commerce Bureau under the Department of Trade and Industry for its objective to protect online consumers and merchants against fraudulent transactions, including the sale of counterfeit goods online.

"Our consistent efforts in intellectual property (IP) enforcement has kept our positive standing in the global IP community and we intend to continue elevating not just our enforcement mechanisms to support the growth of IP rights holders but also raise awareness on the dangers of counterfeiting and piracy," IPOPHL Director General Rowel Barba said.

Of IPOPHL's awareness efforts, the USTR noted its "IP and Citizen Journalism for Schools" program, the recent soft launch of the "Pirated Inferno" comic, and its collaborative anti-piracy campaign as best practices in gathering domestic support.

Further, the USTR also observed the country's best practices that encouraged the active participation of government officials in technical assistance and capacity building.

For the Philippines, it took stock of the National Judicial Colloquium on IP Adjudication, which included participation from judges from Australia and Singapore to share best practices.

Aside from the USTR-cited initiatives, Barba added that its site-blocking rules which came into effect early this year "effectively gathered the support of stakeholders and partners."

IPOPHL, he said, has also been going to different local government units to encourage the development and adoption of an Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Policy.

Barba added that its "Say 'No' to Piracy" awareness campaign has also been gaining ground with the ambassadorship of actor Matteo Guidicelli.

Despite this, the IPOPHL chief admitted that more work has to be done.

"While we are pleased that the USTR took notice of several best practices in the Philippines, this is certainly not a ticket to sit comfortably as it also cited longstanding issues which IPOPHL, together with the whole of the NCIPR, has been addressing actively and collaboratively as we comprehensively showed and explained in our annual correspondence to the USTR," said Barba, who sits at the NCIPR as acting chair.

The USTR flagged slow opposition and cancellation proceedings, the country being a source of fake medicines, and geographical indication issues.

On the allegations of slow opposition proceedings for example, Barba said that the Bureau of Legal Affairs saw a faster turnaround time in the processing to disposal of cases from 19.6 months in 2022 to 14.2 months in 2023, on the back of the electronic filing system and digital case management system implemented in 2021.

As of the first quarter of 2024, Barba said the processing time has been further reduced to nine months, adding that it only took an average of six days to issue decisions from the date the cases were submitted for decision, as compared to 10 and seven days in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

"We stand by the merits of our defense, which are robust enough to put the USTR's concerns behind us. We will continue working with the NCIPR and relevant stakeholders to preserve the trust and confidence of investors and consumers and maintain the country's good reputation in the global IP and enforcement landscape," according to Barba.