THE Senate Committee on Trade and Industry led by Sen. Mark Villar is set to tackle two bills which aim to strengthen the powers of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to curb online content piracy in the country.Villar said the public hearing on Senate Bill 2150 and SB 2385 authored by Senators Jose 'Jinggoy' Estrada and Ramon 'Bong' Revilla Jr., respectively, will be tackled during the Senate recess.
'Considering the pervasiveness of these illegal activities which severely hamper the growth of the creative economy and lead to loss of jobs or displacement of workers, there is a need to establish regulations and effective mechanisms to protect intellectual property rights,' Estrada said.SB 2385 aims to empower the IPOPHL to disable access to sites which infringe copyright and initiate action for site blocking.