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Blancaflor: IP Agency to Launch Information Campaign
10 September 2012
Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines director general Ricardo Blancaflor has told reporters that IPOPhil will introduce an intellectual property information campaign in February designed to raise awareness of IP issues, specifically geographic indications.
“We are initially looking at Guimaras mango, Bicol pili [and] South Cotabato Tinalak, among others. These products are endemic to these places and registering them in the IPOPhil will ensure their identity in the market,” he said told reporters in Makati City.
Using Guimaras mangoes as an example, Blancaflor explained to reporters that traders used the name of the province to sell other types of mangoes to buyers. “When you advertise a product from a certain place, it becomes more valuable,” he said. “That’s why we are urging them to register these products with us.”
In a separate announcement, a regional official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) told the Inquirer newspaper that Bicol pili would be on the list of food products registered at IPOPhil.
Pili nuts are eaten throughout Southeast Asia and are an important ingredient in the moon cakes made in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The newspaper quoted Jocelyn Berango, spokesperson of the DTI office in Bicol, as saying that registering Bicol pili as an intellectual property was the department’s way of helping fully develop the region’s pili industry. Once registered, Bicol pili will receive its own geographical indication from the intellectual property office.
