US keen on upping support to Philippines’ creative industry

MANILA, Philippines — The head of the US Patent and Trademark Office is eyeing opportunities on how they could boost their support to the Philippines’ creative industry, which is still reeling from pandemic-induced woes. 

Kathi Vidal, the director of the USPTO and Commerce undersecretary, lauded the Philippine government's efforts to pass legislation to support the country’s creative industry. 

“The ability to grow jobs in the Philippines through the creative industry is phenomenal, given your workforce, given how young they are, given how talented they are in that space,” she told Philstar.com in a limited engagement with the news media on Monday. 

Republic Act 11904 or the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act lapsed into law on July 27 last year. The measure is geared towards aiding the development of the creative industry sector. 

This sector contributed 7.3% to the country’s gross domestic product last year. This is equivalent to P1.6 trillion, leapfrogging 12.1% year-on-year as the creative industry largely benefitted from the easing of mobility restrictions towards the end of 2022. 

Vidal’s three-day tour in the Philippines, alongside a meeting with the head of the country’s intellectual property office, marked a first of sorts. This was her first visit to the Philippines as director of the superpower’s patent office, part of a broader initiative of the United States to strengthen its economic alliances amid the backdrop of regional tensions against China. 

The USPTO has been active in the region since the mid-1970s. 

“What we plan to do in the next meeting is a listening session, I wanna hear how we can support the Philippines more, how we can support artists in the Philippines, not just the larger organizations that might show up to a meeting like this but all the artists out there that are not showing up,” she said. 

“That’s something we’re solving for in the US as well,” Vidal added. 

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines signed a memorandum of understanding with the USPTO in 2021. 

Intellectual property woes

As it is, the creative industry sector’s prominence could grow larger in the coming years, as the Marcos Jr .administration believes so. In the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, the government trained its sights on this sector to fatten its contribution to economic growth and drive innovation. 

Vidal spotlighted that the Philippines could attract more investments provided the country fosters growth in its intellectual property (IP) ecosystem. 

Data provided by the USPTO revealed the United States is the top patent filer in the Philippines, with patent filings growing 9.3% in 2022. 

“The fact that you’re not on the 301 list, the fact that you’re committed to IP, creative industries, makes it a very ripe area for investments,” she said. 

The Philippines has stayed out of the US’s watch list of countries with IP violations for a decade now. As it is, counterfeiting and piracy remain a perennial problem across the world, as the Philippines has made considerable efforts to curb them.

The European Commission flagged four markets in the country, Greenhills Shopping Center and Divisoria counting tagged as two, as hotspots of counterfeit goods.