February 18, 2011
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines recently concluded an agreement with the National Library that beginning April 2011 IPPHL will be accepting registration and deposit of original works such as:
(a) Books, pamphlets, articles and other writings;
(b) Periodicals and newspapers;
(c) Lectures, sermons, addresses, dissertations prepared for oral delivery, whether or not reduced in writing or other material form;
(d) Letters;
(e) Dramatic or dramatico-musical compositions; choreographic works or entertainment in dumb shows;
(f) Musical compositions, with or without words;
(g) Works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving, lithography or other works of art; models or designs for works of art;
(h) Original ornamental designs or models for articles of manufacture, whether or not registrable as an industrial design, and other works of applied art;
(i) Illustrations, maps, plans, sketches, charts and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science;
(j) Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character;
(k) Photographic works including works produced by a process analogous to photography; lantern slides;
(l) Audiovisual works and cinematographic works and works produced by a process analogous to cinematography or any process for making audio-visual recordings;
(m) Pictorial illustrations and advertisements;
(n) Computer programs; and
(o) Other literary, scholarly, scientific and artistic works (IP Code, Sec. 172.1).
Derivative works may also be registered and deposited (IP Code, Sec. 173). In fact, any work, “by the sole fact of their creation irrespective of their mode or form of expression, as well as of their content, quality, and purpose,” are protected, and thus may also be registered and deposited (IP Code, Sec. 172.2).
Authors and artists could benefit in depositing their works and obtaining a certificate of deposit to that effect. Registration and deposit affords the copyright owners evidence of authorship, and indicates the date of creation and date of publication of the copyrighted work.
The IPOPHL started receiving the deposit and registration of literary and artistic works, assignments and exclusive licenses over copyrighted works and other written agreements involving copyrights of deceased artists and authors on 16 February 2011.