Small-sized Firm But With Big League Credentials
It may not have the litigation muscle of big time law firms but what it lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for quality in litigation work. Federis, with a litigation department of4 lawyers, scored towering victories in the previous months in various brand wars for important clients with highly competitive market to protect. […]
Is the BLA Creating a Grey Area?
Confusing similarity issues are easily resolved, what with the IP Code instituting Dominancy Test as the heuristic to determine confusing similarity (or so as ruled by the High Court in 2004), which simplifies analysis by dwelling only on the similarities in the dominant features of the contending marks. As to what is “dominant”, there is […]
Applicants Can Now Defer Publication of Industrial Design Patent Applications
Beginning May 20, 2014, an industrial design patent applicant has the option to file a request for deferred publication simultaneously with the filing of the application or at any time prior to the publication date. The maximum period allowed for the deferred publication is thirty (30) months from the filing date or priority date of […]
New Deadlines For Payment of Annuities for Divisional Applications
The Bureau of Patents changed the calculation of the deadline for payment of annuities for divisional applications. There is now only one deadline to pay the annual fees for a divisional application and the annual fees for the parent application. This deadline is four (4) years from the international publication date of the parent application […]
Raid to Confiscate “Billions of Pesos” of Counterfeit Goods Reveals Corruption
By Caesar J. Poblador News of police seizure of counterfeits are normally taken by the usual armchair skeptics as just manufactured press releases, like to put in a good word for the current police leadership. But it’s not another ho-hum press release anymore when the staid reporting also matter-of-factly mentions “billions of pesos” worth of […]
Vigilant Trademark Enforcement Leads to Stronger Border Protection Against Unwanted and Illicit Goods
By Caesar J. Poblador Garbage from Canada, in 50 freights, smuggled into the Philippines, – really, even garbage? So what else is new? This bit of seeming news trivia (see link at http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/577090/50-freight-containers-of-trash-traced-to-valenzuela-city-firm) reinforces the everyday narrative that people will stop at nothing to make a good buck, and lots of it. But on second […]
IPOPHIL issues a bundle of Office Orders Implementing Rep Act 10372
On September 19, 2013, IPOPHIL Director General Blancaflor signed a bundle of Office Orders establishing the rules and regulations for some the provisions of Republic Act No. 10372, the law which passed earlier this year and amended the Intellectual Property Code. Office Order No. 13-169 establishes the rules and procedures at the Bureau of Copyright […]
Proposed IP Code Amendments Designed to Strengthen the Powers of the BLA
The IPO has posted a bulletin for comments on a proposal to amend certain provisions of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (IP Code). Entitled “An Act Amending Certain Provisions Of Republic Act No. 8293 Entitled (in turn entitled ‘An Act Prescribing The Intellectual Property Code And Establishing The Intellectual Property Office, Providing For […]