USTR Focuses on Broadcasting and Medicines

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MANILA 003153 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/EP, AND EB/IFD DEPT FOR EB/IPC STATE PASS USTR FOR DKATZ AND RBAE STATE ALSO PASS USAID, OPIC, USDA TREASURY FOR OASIA USDOC FOR 4430/ITA/MAC USDOC PASS USPTO BANGKOK FOR FCS JENNIFER NESS STATE ALSO PASS LOC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KIPR ETRD ECON EINT RP SUBJECT: USTR Focuses on Broadcasting and Medicines ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Director for Southeast Asia and Pacific Affairs David Katz and Director of the Office of Innovation Rachel Bae, both from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, discussed bilateral trade issues in Manila on September 3-4. The two major issues discussed were cable television piracy and legislation on pharmaceuticals. Moves are underway within the Philippine government to reverse a decision by the Department of Justice that commercial broadcasts do not have copyright protection. Legislation on pharmaceutical prices is likely to pass congress given the political climate in the run-up to the 2010 presidential campaign. U.S. pharmaceutical interests have understood that they will need to work to minimize damage, as they will not be able to defeat the legislation a second time. End summary. Defending Copyright for Broadcasters -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Katz and Bae met John Medeiros, the executive director of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia. Medeiros updated them on the status of an ongoing cable piracy case in Cotabato City in Mindanao. The Department of Justice approved of the filing of criminal copyright infringement cases against several rural cable television systems for distributing content from broadcasters without obtaining a license or paying royalties. The operators successfully petitioned Secretary of Justice Raul Gonzalez to rule that the Philippine Intellectual Property Code does not grant copyright protection to broadcasters, opening the door to the dismissal of the cases. ¶3. (SBU) Medeiros said the situation is deteriorating, with the chair of the Federation of International Cable Television Associations of the Philippines publicly urging cable companies not to pay royalties to content providers. Medeiros noted that the Association is facing pressure from member organizations to publicize the case. ¶4. (SBU) EconCouns, Katz, and Bae raised the cable piracy issue with Senior Undersecretary of Justice Ernesto Pineda. Pineda's staff had already drafted a reversal of Gonzalez's statement, but it requires the Secretary's signature to be effective. Pineda agreed to have the Justice Department lawyers in Cotabato City object to efforts to dismiss the cases on the basis of Gonzalez's decision. Post learned subsequently that a September 4 hearing was postponed when the judge in Cotabato City did not appear. Twenty Cheaper Medicine Bills and Counting -------------- ¶5. (SBU) During the last Congress of 2004-2007, Senator Mar Roxas proposed a bill to reduce the price of prescription drugs by reducing the scope of patent protection for pharmaceuticals and allowing parallel importation. In the newly-elected Congress, around twenty such bills have been introduced, including Roxas' bill. Many of these bills are similar to the Roxas bill. Others, however, propose populist measures such as price controls on prescription drugs and restrictions on the advertisement of pharmaceuticals. ¶6. (SBU) Edwin Feist and Leo Wassmer of the Pharmaceutical and Health Care Association of the Philippines argued that the Roxas Bill has unacceptable provisions on parallel importation and international patent exhaustion. While the drug industry favors a less interventionist bill proposed by Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, Feist and Wassmer acknowledged that if those sections were changed, the industry could live with the Roxas legislation. ¶7. (SBU) Katz and Bae also met with Representatives Junie Cua, a former chair of the Trade and Industry Committee and House sponsor of the Roxas bill, and Antonio Alvarez, Cua's successor as chair. They both believe that time needs to pass and passions cool before Congress can consolidate all the bills into a single piece of consensus legislation. Cua and Alvarez both see strong momentum that suggests a pharmaceuticals bill will pass. WIPO Internet Implementation -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Katz and Bae raised the need for legislation to implement MANILA 00003153 002 OF 002 the WIPO Internet Treaties, which the Philippines ratified in 2002. Senator Edgardo Angara has introduced such legislation, though it still lacks a sponsor in the House. Congressmen Cua and Alvarez observed that once members of Congress understand that implementing the Internet treaties sends a signal internationally, the bill will pass. Cua added that Juan Angara, the senator's son, was elected to the House in May and could potentially co-sponsor his father's bill. ¶9. (SBU) Val Palanca, a Trade and Industry Committee staffer, pointed out that one sticking point was that a number of legislators who follow internet issues are concerned with WIPO provisions that potentially criminalize the temporary downloading of copyrighted material into the random access memory of a computer. He warned that a final Philippine bill may deal with this issue differently than the WIPO Treaties. Developments at the Optical Media Board -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Katz and Bae met with Eduardo Manzano, chairman of the Optical Media Board. Manzano discussed efforts to make Board licensing procedures more sophisticated by examining the supply and sales contracts of license applicants and looking for inconsistencies. He noted that the year's target for seizures has already been met. His agents made 29 arrests during July and August, and in addition to optical media piracy enforcement, have begun to cooperate with the Philippine National Police to charge under indecency laws those it has discovered trafficking in child pornography. The Intellectual Property Office -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Katz and Bae met with Intellectual Property Office Director General Adrian Cristobal to review ongoing initiatives. Cristobal said that he faced the challenge of tracking intellectual property cases around the country, as his office continues to struggle to obtain data. He believes the commonly cited figures of 550 active IPR cases in the Philippine court system and one IPR conviction to date in 2007 are understated. In addition, these figures exclude cases that are settled out of court, as most cases are. Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) A handful of issues will dominate the IPR dialogue for the rest of the year. It is encouraging that the pharmaceutical industry is finally giving serious thought to what it can accept in pharmaceutical legislation. Both they and we will be fighting a difficult battle to clean out bad provisions from the legislation as it moves forward. ¶13. (SBU) The Secretary of Justice's decision that copyright laws do not cover broadcasts is a bad precedent that endangers IPR protection. We are encouraged that the Philippine government understands it needs to set the matter straight and seems to be moving toward reversing the decision. KENNEY