The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines teamed up with the Confederation of Wearables Exporters of the Philippines to protect consumers and intellectual property rights holders against the sale and manufacture of counterfeit apparel and footwear products both in physical and online markets.
They signed on Feb 13. a memorandum of understanding that sets a framework to cooperate and ensure the protection of IP rights of CONWEP members and adequately address trademark infringement and counterfeiting issues.
“If left unchecked, counterfeit apparel and footwear products may pose grave danger to the health and safety of consumers. It may also negatively affect brands, which have built their reputation on the high quality of their products and their compliance with legally set safety standards,” said IPOPHL director-general Rowel Barba.
IPOPHL and CONWEP agreed to pool resources to protect the IP rights of legitimate manufacturers as both also refused to tolerate activities that put manufacturers, brand owners and consumers at a disadvantage.