PHL takes lead in Asean intellectual property grp

THE Philippines is now taking the lead of Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation after the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Director General Rowel S. Barba assumed chairmanship.

In a statement over the weekend, the IPOPHL said that Barba took on the role last March 25 during a virtual turnover ceremony of the working group.

The working group is aimed at fulfilling Asean’s 2025 goal of boosting economic prosperity through IP across the region.

Barba, in his acceptance speech, said he is aiming to complete immediately the remaining deliverables under the Asean IP Rights Action Plan 2016 to 2025. He hopes to do this by allowing more cooperation activities within the region and with Asean dialogue partners.

“As I assume the chairmanship on behalf of the Philippines, I will be working with my team in IPOPHL and with the Asean Secretariat to develop mechanisms that will fasttrack the realization of our 10-yearroad map,” he said.

The IPOPHL said that about 82 percent of the plan is either ongoing or completed.

Barba also intends to further the coordination and collaboration in the bloc for easier communication and resolution of potential concerns. In addition, he also wants to modernize the processes via digital transformation, which is seen to improve efficiency and delivery of service.

“We call on our fellow AWGIPC members to renew your commitment, intensify your cooperation with everyone, the Asean Secretariat and our partners, and to continue the support that we have been giving each other in the last four years,” he added.

IPOPHL said the group has yet to work on the possibilities of crafting unified regional systems for trademark, patents and industrial designs. The group also eyes to develop regional databases to consolidate the network of genetic resources and traditional knowledge (GRTK) and of copyright information.

AWGIPC intends to strengthen financial management to continue improving the services of member-IP offices.

It is set to develop an information exchange for online enforcement, in addition to Asean guidelines on IP rights enforcement against online infringement.

Currently, IPOPHL also sits as chair of the Asean Network of IP Enforcement Experts (Aniee). It is a sub-group of AWGIPC tasked with the implementation of IP enforcement activities under the Action Plan.