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From sidewalk stalls to shopping centers, the Philippines is teeming with counterfeit products – pirated DVDs, fake signature bags, unlicensed s0oftware, and a lot more.

Intellectual Property Rights, although sounding fancy and complicated, is just the  all-encompassing term used to cover intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs.

In the country, the most common form of violation of the Intellectual Property Rights are the production and selling of counterfeit products, especially signature brands, and yes, the pirated DVDs.

But why buy the original products instead of the cheap pirated goods?

John Lesaca, president of the Intellectual Property Coalition, cited three reasons why businesses should observe and be an accredited  as  an intellectual property rights compliant organization:

1.    It reflects on your organization

 “If you have the seal, which is a testament that your company is compliant with the intellectual property rights, it shows the people, your clients, that your company has the best practices, and you only have quality and original products,” Lesaca said.

“When people see that you have good service and quality original products, people will patronize your business more. Some people think that going to the cheap and pirated products will give them savings, but it doesn’t. It only costs them more in the long run as pirated products are not quality products,” Lesaca said.

3.    Seal of Good Housekeeping

“Pirated goods, while cheap, do not give a good image about the Philippines. You bring tourists to a shop with pirated goods and they will buy, but the moment they arrive in their country and see the quality of the products, they will be dismayed. They will have a mindset that products in the Philippines have low quality and will even think of the Philippines as a place for pirated goods,” Lesaca said.

The IP SEAL is a program of the IP Coalition aimed at cultivating public awareness of and commitment to IP standards and best practices. Central to the program is the IP SEAL itself, a stamp of approval that serves to educate the public that compliance with IP standards and best practices provides an assurance of a legitimate origin, absolute safety, and uncompromised quality and excellence.