COPYRIGHT registrations rose by 64% to 1,538 in the first nine months of 2021, surpassing the figure recorded last year, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said on Friday.
“Over the pandemic, our creative people…continue to do work. In fact, this is shown by the increasing level of copyright registrations before the Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights (BCRR), we have surpassed the 2020 level,” Emerson G. Cuyo, the IPOPHL Director of the BCRR, said in a virtual briefing on Friday.
Copyright filings reached 940 last year.
As of September 2021, the country’s copyright registrations have reached 10,148 since applications opened in 2011, the IPOPHL said.
Daniel S. Hofilena, senior consultant of the IPOPHL, said copyright deposits were already picking up pace in the first quarter this year compared to the previous year.
The filings rose by 91% to 444 from January to March 2021 from the 233 recorded in the same period last year, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of creatives who are more aware of their rights because of the programs of the IPOPHL. At the same time, it can be said that the pandemic has spurred our creative industry,” Mr. Hofilena said in a mix of English and Tagalog.
Earlier this month, the IPOPHL launched “Juan for the World”, a program which aims to protect the trademarks of micro, small and medium enterprises under the Madrid Protocol by the end of 2024.
The protocol is an international trademark filing system which allows for single and cost-effective applications for registration. — A.Y. Yang
