More than 58 percent of car parts bought online are fake, says UK expert

Kick-off activity at the start of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Week: 6th Philippine Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City. (Photo by AJB)

Substandard car parts contribute to accidents and loss of lives in the United Kingdom as David Lowe revealed that 58% of materials bought online are fake. 

The counterfeit car parts cost the UK automotive industry GBP 28 billion (PHP 1.6 trillion). The cost does not include the loss of lives and damages as a result of use of defective car parts.

David Lowe is the head of the Intellectual Property (IP) Enforcement Capacity and Delivery of the UK Intellectual Property Office. He is one of the resource persons invited by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) to grace its IPR Week celebrations which started with the 6^th Philippine Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City on October 24, 2016.

Lowe added that the UK publishing industry also suffered as more than 100 million magazines were illegally downloaded in 2014. 

With the summit’s theme “Advocating IPR Protection and Enforcement in Governance,” IPOPHL Director General Josephine R. Santiago reported on the gains, challenges, and plans for IPR in the Philippines.

Director General Santiago highlighted the 4% growth in the filing of IP cases from 526 (2013) to 643 (2015). She also noted the 2% growth in resolved cases from 510 (2013) to 551 (2015).

The detailed IPR Action Plan 2017-2022 was presented by IPOPHL Deputy Director General Allan B. Gepty. He pointed on the need to intensify IP education in the country.

Gepty explained that aside from the IPOPHL-backed Young IP Advocates (YIPA), the agency will spearhead the expansion of IP advocates in schools and universities. These students will be included in the regular trainings and seminars on IP.

He mentioned that a policy must be made to require schools and universities to include IPR education and awareness in their curricula. The policy must be crafted by the Department of Education (DepEd) which oversees basic education and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for colleges and universities.

Director Carmen G. Peralta of IPOPHL’s Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer Bureau presented the highlights of the 4^th IP Youth Camp held in Davao City. 

To date, YIPA has inducted 85 secondary school students in its membership. The total network of schools nationwide is 27. 

Delegates from various public and private sector organizations. (l-r) two officials from the Bureau of Customs, Civil Service Commission director Ariel Villanueva and companion, Alvin J. Buenaventura, Ranielle S. Espiridion, and four officials from the Quezon City Hall. (Photo by IPOPHL staff).

In support of the IPOPHL’s IPR Week celebrations, the Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS) Executive Director AlvinJ. Buenaventura and Staff Ranielle S. Espiridion participated as delegates to the summit.

FILCOLS is the second collective management organization (CMO) accredited by the IPOPHL in 2014. The accreditation of CMOs was included in the amendments (RA 10372) to the IP Code which was enacted by then President Benigno S. Aquino in 2013.

 Text by Alvin J. Buenaventura. Photos by Alvin J. Buenaventura and IPOPHL staff Richmond A. De Leon. This may be re-posted as long as the authors are acknowledged.

DepEd seminar on the development of Grades 2 and 8 learning resources

In a move to equip publishers with better understanding of copyright, the Philippines' Department of Education recently conducted a two-day orientation-seminar at the DepEd headquarters in Pasig City.

Alvin J. Buenaventura discussed "Secondary Use of Copyrighted Works from the Internet" before officers of the education department and 52 representatives from 28 publishing houses.

Buenaventura before DepEd officials and private sector publishers. (Photo by DepEd staff).

Buenaventura is the Executive Director of the the Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc., the collective management organization in the text and image sector operating in the Philippines. FILCOLS licenses the re-use of copyrighted printed materials of its member-authors and publishers.

Due to the urgent need to provide learning materials for the government's then new K to 12 program, the DepEd signed a license agreement with FILCOLS in 2013 so it can include poems, stories, comics, and other works for the Grade 1 and 7 Teachers' Guides and Learners' Materials.

Buenaventura explained how a CMO like FILCOLS operates. And provided a picture of how other CMOs cooperate through the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO), the world's umbrella organization for CMOs, authors' and publishers' associations.

Buenaventura emphasized the need to respect the rights of authors. (Photo by DepEd staf).

He also stressed that the default mode of every one when it comes to works on the internet is that they have copyright. Texts, images, and music found online should be respected and not just used without asking permission from the copyright owner.

Unless the website expressly states that their content may be used freely, everyone should remember that copyright extends online.

Atty. Louie Andrew Calvario of the Intellectual Property Office of the Phiippines (IPOPHL) discussed "Copyright Issues and Concerns" prior to Buenaventura's presentation.

The event was organized by the Bureau of Learning Resources led by Dr. Edel B. Carag and Dr. Dina S. Ocampo, DepEd's undersecretary for curriculum and instruction.

The seminar mainly aims to help publishing houses get a clear picture of the "standards, specifications, evaluation and procurement procedures" of the DepEd to help them produce learning resources for the public schools.

Click here to view the Program of Activities

FILCOLS inks first licensing agreement with The Manila Times College

The Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS) reached an important milestone with the signing of its first licensing agreement with The Manila Times College (TMTC) last 19 July 2012. FILCOLS chair Dr. Isagani R. Cruz and TMTC chair Dr. Dante A. Ang signed the agreement in its campus in Intramuros at the heart of Manila.

TMTC is a private tertiary educational institution established by Dr. Ang in 2003. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Manila Times, the Philippines’ oldest English daily newspaper established in 1898.

The college offers programs in Journalism; Mass Communication; Secondary Education, major in English; Film Production; and Acting for Film and TV. It has partnerships with other educational institutions like the Asia-Pacific College, Don Bosco Technical College, and Emilio Aguinaldo College. It also forged links with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.

Established in 2008, FILCOLS is the Philippine collective management organization (CMO) in the text and image sector. FILCOLS was organized and initially funded by the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), the country’s largest book industry association.

The government through the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines and National Book Development Board (NBDB) played an important role in helping BDAP gather the authors and publishers together. The bulk of the author-members of FILCOLS come from the Writers’ Union of the Philippines (UMPIL – Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas), the largest association of Filipino authors. 

From 2010 to 2012, FILCOLS received grants for its operations from the Norwegian government through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD); from Kopinor, the reproduction rights organization (RRO) of Norway; and the Norwegian Copyright Development Association (NORCODE).

NORAD supported FILCOLS in 2010 through NORCODE.

Kopinor Development Fund headed by Hans-Petter Fuglerud provided grants for FILCOLS in 2010 to 2012.

Hans-Petter Fuglerud visited Manila on different occasions to assess FILCOLS and provide technical advice.          (Photo by AJB)

NORCODE was formed by five Norwegian CMOs in 2007. Managing Director Frode Lovik visited the Philippines on different occasions to assess FILCOLS. Along with Kopinor, NORCODE provided grants for FILCOLS in 2010 to 2012.

NORCODE managing director Frode Løvik. (Photo by AJB)

Cruz was a founding board member of FILCOLS and was elected chair in 2010. After more than three decades as professor and publisher at the De la Salle University – Manila, he retired and then headed TMTC as its president in early 2011. Cruz is a multi-awarded author, a former undersecretary at the Department of Education, and a leader of many local and international organizations.

FILCOLS chair Dr. Isagani R. Cruz.

 FILCOLS executive director Alvin J. Buenaventura said “FILCOLS is not against the photocopying of copyrighted works in schools. Photocopying is a valuable tool in education. Some photocopying inside higher education institutions (HEIs) may be within fair use. But every semester millions of HEIs students photocopy works on a large scale. Those millions of reproduced works were made without a single cent of royalty paid to authors. These actions obviously hurt the livelihood of authors. We believe this is not fair and must be properly compensated.”

The “Fair Use” clause is a limitation on the exclusive rights of authors to their works. In section 185 of the IP Code, “use of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching including multiple copies for classroom use, scholarship, research, and similar purposes is not an infringement of copyright.”

The “multiple copies for classroom use” is the portion being used by HEIs as their “Fair Use Defense” for the massive photocopying inside their campuses. 

However, the law mandated four factors that must be considered to determine fair use: (a)The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit education purposes; (b) The nature of the copyrighted work; (c) The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (d) The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. (Sec. 185, IP Code or RA 8293)

The effect of the use on the potential, not actual, market for or value of the work is the most important factor. Massive photocopying which happens systematically inside HEIs affects the livelihood of authors.

Buenaventura explained that in one private university he visited the author-professor complained of the “harapang pagnanakaw” (brazen stealing) of royalties due him and other authors because of the large-scale uncompensated photocopying. 

“FILCOLS believes in the balancing of rights. We agree that some use may be within Fair Use, but we know that in practice the systematic, massive photocopying goes beyond what is fair to authors and publishers. For this reason, The Manila Times College, which I also head as president, was the first institutional licensee of FILCOLS and the first school to be copyright compliant,” Dr. Cruz stressed.