NCIPR Help Desk to curb counterfeiting in Greenhills   

December 11, 2025

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) foresees a marked drop in counterfeit selling at the Greenhills Shopping Center (GSC) with the launch of the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) Help Desk in early 2026—an important milestone in the country’s efforts to eliminate counterfeiting and piracy in the only Philippine mall currently cited in the United States Trade Representative’s Notorious Markets List. 

Acting Director General Nathaniel S. Arevalo called the initiative a “landmark” achievement, noting that it reflects years of collaboration with GSC management to curb illicit trade and help clear the Philippines from foreign watch lists, namely the USTR NML and the European Commission’s Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List. 

“As acting chair of the NCIPR, IPOPHL has maintained active dialogue with GSC management regarding its efforts to strengthen enforcement measures and promote IP awareness and respect among its community of small-business traders,” Arevalo said. 

The GSC has long been recognized as a prominent hotspot for the distribution of pirated and counterfeit goods in the Philippines. While the GSC management has made progress in recent years by suspending violators, tightening rules on retail products and enforcing stricter tenant regulations, both IPOPHL and GSC recognize that lasting change demands a deeper, more holistic and community-driven strategy. This is consistent with the NCIPR’s emphasis on a whole-of-society approach to eliminating piracy and counterfeiting. 

One key tactic the GSC management and the NCIPR have been implementing is engaging directly with tenants to help them understand basic IP rights and support their transition toward selling legitimate—and even local—products. 

The upcoming help desk, to be staffed by IPOPHL’s IP Rights Enforcement Office and other NCIPR member-agencies, will further strengthen these efforts. It will provide an on-the-ground hub where tenants and visitors can freely consult, report concerns and access IP-related guidance whenever they need it. 

“Bringing our services closer to the people allows us to engage more directly with the Greenhills community and better understand the concerns they face. This will enable us to develop more responsive strategies to sustain IP compliance and support traders in their transition to legitimate business practices,” he added. # # # (Rawl Maliwat, Communications and Marketing Writer)