Trademark infringement liability extends to store owners

Copyright, on the other hand, serves as the legal protection of the owner of the rights to their original work, such as in the production of literary, scientific and artistic domain

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPhl) is extending the liability of trademark infringement to store owners through proposed reforms in Republic Act 8292 or the Intellectual Property Code.

“We have already submitted a draft to the chair of the trade committee at the Senate and we had also talked to the House committee on trade. That was last month,” IPOPHL director general Josephine Santiago said at a news briefing by the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) in Makati on Wednesday.

“The landlord-lessee liability will extend to trademarks. At present, what we have refers only to copyright. This will be extended to trademarks, meaning those that you see in terms of articles of footwear, bags and all that you see in malls, that will already be hit by the bill,” Santiago added.

Earlier this year, Santiago said her office has also submitted to the Congress a bill containing “substantive changes” on the intellectual property code. The move is part of the agency’s efforts to ramp up awareness and enforcement of IP laws in the face of the growing digital economy.

IPOPHL defines trademark as a word, group of words, sign, symbol, logo or a combination of such which distinguishes the entity of goods or services from the others.

Copyright, on the other hand, serves as the legal protection of the owner of the rights to their original work, such as in the production of literary, scientific and artistic domain. Both are among the forms of intellectual property covered by the IP law.

The existing law subjects IP law violators to a penalty of P50,000 to P1.5 million and imprisonment of one to nine years depending on the gravity of the offense, and subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency. According to Santiago, they are looking at doubling the fine for the penalty in the revised IP law as well as imposing higher penalties on violations pertaining to public health and safety.

For just the first seven months of the year, the NCIPR seized P13.73 billion worth of counterfeit products, or already nearly 60 percent of the P23.6-billion worth of fake goods confiscated in 2018. Cigarettes and alcohol comprise the bulk of the inventory, according to the NCIPR, followed by pharmaceuticals and personal care products.

Additionally, Santiago said agency is also proposing for the disruption of the operation of online platforms found to be violating trademark laws. She said the IPOPHL will request online payment gateways to institute certain measures to address the infringement of IP rights online.

The NCIPR, for which IPOPHL serves as vice chair, is pursuing a 2019 to 2022 action plan which details intellectual property strategies to sustain IPR nationwide while catch up with rapid technological changes, which has made the violation of IP laws relatively easier in recent years, the NCIPR said.

NCIPR is an inter-agency body tasked to implement plans and policies in line with the IP law chaired by the Department of Trade and Industry.