Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

IPR Week to Focus on Cross Border Challenges, Cooperation

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Amid the rise of cross border issues in intellectual property (IP), the program line-up for this year’s IP Week Celebration, to run from 26 to 30 October, puts focus on the regional and international challenges and cooperation relating to IP protection, enforcement and adjudication.

To open this year’s IP Week celebration is the 5th Philippine Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit on 26 October at the Marriot Hotel in Pasay City. With the theme “Building Cooperation Across Borders,” the Summit is organized by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the National Committee on IP Rights (NCIPR), the multi-agency taskforce on IP enforcement.

To supplement the presentations and discussions on the latest issues and developments in the Philippine IP enforcement, the organizers have invited foreign speakers to discuss the pressing issues in global IP enforcement and share their respective country experience on the topic. They are Mr. Hideyuki Morooka of the Japan Patent Office; Mr. Nam Ngo Thien, IPR Attaché for South-East Asia of the Embassy of France in Singapore; Mr. Louis Bonnier and Atty. Jean-Pierre Maeder of the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP); Mr. Cha Tae-won of the Korean Copyright Commission; Mr. Etienne Sanz de Acedo of the International Trademark Association; Mr. Man F. Tse of the National Intellectual Property Rights Center, USA; Mr. Ignacio de Medrano Caballero of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market; and Mr. Maysa Razavi of the International Trademark Association.

The Summit will also feature the awarding of this year’s IP Champions, a recognition given to the partner individuals and institutions in IP enforcement of the NCIPR and the oath-taking of the newest batch of the Young IP Advocates, an annual IP workshop for students from selected secondary schools.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

We were invited to attend the annual gala night of Jewelmer, a Filipino jeweler brand whose pieces are sold in mainstream stores worldwide, and supplies golden pearls to many international designer brands.

The Jewelmer brand name, put together by Filipino scion Manuel Cojuangco and French pilot and pearl entrepreneur Jacques Branellec, was coined from the English word "jewel" and French word "mer" which means "sea" in English. It is a partnership made several years ago that could be called a divine providence of which eventually resulted to another widely-recognized brand every Filipino should be proud of.

The annual gala was held at the Manila Peninsula Hotel on October 20, 2015 dubbed as "A Journey to the Extraordinary" where the company flaunted new priced pieces of their jewelry collection and new video presentations featuring how Jewelmer came to be.

The celebration was hosted by the adorably stunning Issa Litton, who introduced the two main men behind the brand. Both Cojuangco and Branellec gave their respective messages to the delight of the elite crowd.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Department of Energy (DOE), as part of its mandate to ensure sufficiency and reliability of the nationwide electric power supply, is enjoining all stakeholders to render support and assistance in safeguarding power facilities from any obstructions that would affect the continuous supply of electricity to all households and establishments.

“We appeal particularly to the local government units and land owners to cooperate with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the Concessionaire of the national transmission lines, in resolving the transmission issues on right of way and easements,” DOE OIC-Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada said.

The NGCP reported that landowners in various areas refused to allow their crew members to enter their premises to clear fallen trees and vegetation that pose a threat to the safe and reliable operation of the power lines. NGCP also reported their difficulty in seeking permission to cut trees under transmission lines that eventually cause trippings of lines.

The recent occurrence is a sustained tripping of the Agus 2-Kibawe Line 1 which is caused by a fallen tree cutting the NGCP line conductors. This, as NGCP reported, may result to the isolation of the Agus Units 1 and 2 that are connected to the affected lines.

“To prevent unwarranted power supply disruptions and avoid power-related incidents to occur, Distribution Utilities and NGCP should be given right to access or traverse designated area of the real property to ensure that potential hazards are proactively managed before they encroached on the power lines,” OIC-Sec. Monsada emphasized.