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In an effort to promote awareness of the public with respect to the safety and health hazards of the use of counterfeit motor vehicles as well as automotive parts and accessories, the Intellectual Property Office (IPOPhl), Motorcycle Development Program Participants Association, Inc. (MDPPA) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on October 21, 2013 during the 3rd Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Summit held at Marriott Hotel Manila.
The Signing Ceremony was represented by the respective head of office of the Contracting Parties: Director General Ricardo R. Blancaflor, Mr. Alfredo O. Lejano, and Atty. Winston M. Ginez. The partnership sets out a framework of cooperation and collaboration among the parties to launch a nationwide campaign on the Intellectual property rights and road safety in the automotive industry. Also present during the MOU signing was IPO Deputy Director General Allan Gepty.
From Right: Director General Ricardo R. Blancaflor, Mr. Alfredo O. Lejano, and Atty. Winston M. Ginez seal the partnership
Initial activity of this campaign will be the installation of posters carrying the tagline “Ingatan ang Buhay. Bumili ng Tunay” (Save life, Buy genuine) in the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR), Land Transportation Office (LTO) and LTFRB offices nationwide, spare parts dealers, motorcycle repair shops, major sea and air ports, bus and metro rail stations, shopping malls motorcycle parking areas, schools and in public utility vehicles.
Designs of the four posters
DDG Blancaflor in his presentation during the Summit mentioned that investigations on the causes of motor vehicle accidents were usually focused on human errors, environmental and general mechanical interventions. However, the use of counterfeit parts that would have caused the accident has never been seriously considered. Mr. Lejano also stressed in his presentation that rightful owners sustain not only economic loss by counterfeit parts but damage to their brand values due to the dead copies that also includes lookalike packaging of genuine parts.
He further said that the people who unknowingly purchase counterfeit products anticipating a bargain are actually paying an inflated price for an inferior and substandard product and sooner or later are exposed to safety and health risks. LTFRB Chairman Ginez expressed his office’s full support to the objective of the campaign collaborating Mr. Lejano’s statement that with the increasing road accidents, safety on our roads has been compromised due to consumers patronizing these counterfeit products.
Sharing the vision of the government of effecting continuing improvement of road safety, the MDPPA and its members namely: Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kymco, recognize the partnership as an important milestone in an effort to meet the challenges of intellectual property theft in the motorcycle industry.
MDPPA also participated in the exhibit at the hotel’s foyer. Both genuine and counterfeit spare parts were showcased to distinguish one from the other. “No to Fake” Brochures from the Japan Automotive Manufacturers Association (JAMA) were distributed to booth visitors. “A regular consumer cannot easily identify the dissimilarity between a genuine and counterfeit part just by looking at the part. Compared with genuine parts, counterfeit products are substantially inferior in terms of quality and performance”.
A video courtesy of JAMA and the Japan Automotive Parts Industry Association (JAPIA) showing the significant effects of using counterfeit spare parts on the vehicle’s safety and endurance reliability was continuously played throughout the exhibit.
MDPPA’s Exhibit Booth
