P24-B FAKE PRODUCTS. Lawyer Teodoro Pascua (right), deputy director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, on Wednesday (August 17, 2022) calls on residents of Cagayan de Oro City to patronize genuine products than buy counterfeit items. He says in 2021 alone, some PHP23.9 billion worth of fake products were bought from online transactions across the country. (PNA photo by Nef Luczon)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is seeking the support of Mindanao local government units (LGUs) in the campaign against counterfeit brands.
During the agency's information campaign leg here Wednesday, IPOPHL Deputy Director General Teodoro Pascua said one of the targets under the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) is the elimination of fake items sold in commercial establishments by year 2025.
“We need the local governments to be part of this because they are the ones that disseminate the campaign on the ground,” Pascua said.
However, Pascua lamented that another factor why fake brands proliferate is because the public patronize them.
In 2021 alone, he said the rise of online stores also contributed to the sales of counterfeit products in the country amounting to PHP23.9 billion.
“Instead of buying these fake brands, it would have been better if we will buy local products instead,” he said, adding that most counterfeit brands came from overseas.
Also included in intellectual property rights violations are films, music, and other media on “pirated” streaming sites and their unauthorized downloads.
The photocopying of books and even the download of unauthorized soft copy formats are also presumed forbidden under the law.
Lawyer Marlita Dagsa, IPOPHL enforcement officer, said common items or brands being counterfeited are clothes, shoes, medicines, cigarettes and electronic gadgets. (PNA)
