Greenhills Shopping Center in USTR’s 'notorious markets for counterfeiting, piracy' list

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has included a popular mall in Metro Manila as among the notorious markets for counterfeiting and piracy.

In its 2022 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, the USTR listed Greenhills Shopping Center located in San Juan City, Metro Manila ——the lone Philippine market cited in the report. 

“Currently, many of the storefronts in this mall sell counterfeit goods, including electronics, perfumes, watches, shoes, accessories, and fashion items,” the USTR said.

“Law enforcement authorities have taken action to seize counterfeit luxury goods, notably during a high-profile raid in April 2022. Right holders report enforcement activity in the form of warning letters and subsequent suspension of business, but the targets of enforcement often evade such efforts by moving the location of their stalls,” it said.

Nevertheless, the USTR said that Greenhills Shopping Center “has expressed willingness to cooperate with authorities.”

The US agency said the mall is set to open early this year a new seven-story building and that the mall expressed belief that “the opening of this building will provide leverage to transition sellers of counterfeit goods into ‘legitimate’ sellers.”

GMA News Online reached out to Greenhills Shopping Center for comment through its Facebook page and landline number, but no response yet has been received as of this posting.

In a separate statement, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said it has proposed a work plan to tackle long-standing counterfeit activities in the Greenhills Shopping Center.

“While the shopping center’s continued inclusion in the list puts the Philippines’ reputation in effectively protecting intellectual property (IP) rights on the line, we are pleased to see that several positive developments in this case have been cited by the USTR,” said IPOPHL director general Rowel Barba.

The IPOPHL said the USTR echoed its previous report on Greenhills’ willingness to collaborate with authorities, adding that the shopping center’s managers believe that the opening of its new seven-story building in 2023 “will provide leverage to transition sellers of counterfeit goods into ‘legitimate’ sellers.”

The IPOPHL said that its work plan is currently under review by the National Committee on IP Rights (NCIPR).

Among the major strategies under the proposed work plan include strengthening the NCIPR’s collaboration with Greenhills with hopes of compelling the shopping center to implement stricter monitoring of their stalls and impose heftier penalties against sellers of counterfeit products.

Under the work plan, the IPOHL said the NCIPR will also coordinate with brand owners to actively submit Affidavits of Complaints to Greenhills – to indicate their expression of filing a legal complaint and as notice to the mall’s management of potential violators.

The IPOPHL said it will also help vendors appreciate the long-term value of respecting others’ IP rights and creating their own IP-protected products.

The intellectual property authority said it also hopes to compel local government units (LGUs) to fully enforce the IP Code of 1997 and the Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) IP-related issuances, namely Memorandum Circular (MC) 2020-124 and MC 2022-055.

MC 2020-124 mandates local offices to issue an ordinance that will, among others, cancel business permits of IP-violating shops while MC 2022-055 encourages LGUs to adopt their respective Anti-Counterfeit and Anti-Piracy Policies to promote IP respect in the workplace.—LDF, GMA Integrated News