Administrative Code of 1987/Book IV/Title X/Chapter 3

by Corazon Aquino

Layout 2

Chapter 3—Office of the Undersecretary for Domestic Trade

Sec. 10. Office of the Undersecretary for Domestic Trade.—The Office of the Undersecretary for Domestic Trade shall include all the staff bureaus and services involved in policy formulation, standards development, programs development, and program monitoring of the development, regulatory, and service delivery programs pertinent to domestic trade and commerce being implemented by the Department's line operating units. The Undersecretary for Domestic Trade shall supervise the following:

(1) Bureau of Trade Regulation and Consumer Protection. This Bureau shall formulate and monitor the implementation of programs for the effective enforcement of laws, correct interpretation and adoption of policies on monopolies and restraint of trade, mislabelling, product misrepresentation and other unfair trade practices; monitor the registration of business names and the licensing and accreditation of establishments and practitioners; protect and safeguard the interest of consumers and the public, particularly the health and safety implications of intrinsic product features, product representation, and the like; and establish the basis for evaluating consumer complaints and product utility failures.

(2) Bureau of Domestic Trade Promotion. This Bureau shall prepare and monitor the implementation of plans and programs directed at the promotion and development of domestic trade, particularly in the area of efficiency, fairness and balance in the distribution of essential products and services and in the strengthening of the domestic base for export activities; conceptualize, monitor, and evaluate programs, plans and projects intended to create awareness of domestic marketing opportunities for new projects, new technologies and investments.

(3) Bureau of Patents, Trademarks, and Technology Transfer. This Bureau shall examine applications for grant of letters, patent for inventions, utility models and industrial designs, and the subsequent grant or refusal of the same; register trademarks, tradenames, service marks and other marks of ownership; hear and adjudicate contested proceedings affecting rights to patents and trademarks; receive, process for registration and evaluate technology transfer arrangements as to their appropriateness and need for the technology or industrial property rights, reasonableness of the technology payment, and for the prohibition of restrictive business clauses, and comply with all its statutory publication requirements by publishing the same in a newspaper of general circulation or in the Official Gazette.

(4) Bureau of Product Standards. This Bureau shall review the products contained in the critical imports list in accordance with established national standards or relevant international standards and buyer-seller specifications; promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the country's shift to the international system of units; study and carry out research on the various reference materials to be used as basis for the start of whatever analysis or evaluation is demanded by the products under examination or investigation; establish standards for all products of the Philippines for which no standards have as yet been fixed by law, executive order, rules and regulations and which products are not covered by the standardization activities of other government agencies; participate actively in international activities on standardization, quality control and metrology; ensure the manufacture, production, and distribution of quality products for the protection of consumers; test and analyze standardized and unstandardized products for purposes of product standard formulation and certification; extend technical assistance to producers to improve the quality of their products; check length, mass and volume measuring instruments; and maintain consultative liaison Pacific Area Standards Congress, and other international standards organizations.

(5) Video Regulatory Board. This Board shall regulate videogram establishments; prevent unfair practices, unfair competition, pirating of legitimately produced video products, and other deceptive, unfair and unconscionable acts and practices to protect the viewing public and the general public.