Gov’t intensifies crackdown on piracy

The government is intensifying its crackdown on intellectual property rights (IPR) violators as part of continuing efforts to convince the US to remove the Philippines from the dreaded 301 IPR watchlist.

Recently, a team from the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) IPR division raided last week the main office and four outlets of a local cake shop for allegedly using the popular cartoon character  "Blue" in its cake designs without the consent of its owner.

"Blue’s Clues" is a popular cartoon show on Nickelodeon Channel, the children’s cable network of media giant Viacom International Inc.

Viacom also owns the copyright over other Nickelodeon programs like Rugrats, Spongebob Squarepants, Jimmy Neutron, Catdog, Wild Thornberries, Invader Zim, The Fairly Odd Parents, Hey Arnold!, Rocket Power, Teenage Robot and Chalk Zone.

Viacom, through its local counsel Escano and Partners, had sought the help of the NBI to arrest IPAR violators who have rampantly been using without legal and proper authorization copyrighted cartoon characters.

Atty. Eduardo C. Escano had previously written Leilani Sy of Art Cakes Inc. to cease and desist from using the character "Blue."

Art Cakes, however, disregarded the demand and continued using the "Blue" character.

Viacom requested the NBI-IPRD to investigate Art Cakes for alleged violation of Section 216 of Republic Act No. 8293 or the IPR Code of the Philippines.

After securing a search and seizure order from Judge Antonio M. Eugenio Jr. of the Manila Regional Trial Court’s Branch 24, an NBI team raided and seized from the head office of Art Cakes in San Juan several sacks of documents allegedly detailing cake transactions, photographs, catalogues, pieces of cookies bearing the "Blue Clues" design and one computer unit.

The US has repeatedly criticized the government for its continued failure to crackdown on IPR violators including software and optical media piracy, cable TV program piracy, as well as various counterfeit activities.