Honda’s Attempt to Enforce Copyright for its Engine Designs Backfires
October 1, 2014 Is the appearance of an engine design copyrightable? This question was answered by the Court of Appeals in the case of TLA Corporation, et al. vs. Honda Motor Company Ltd. and the National Library (CA-G.R. CV No. 98777, Aug. 5, 2014). Intellectual property owners sometimes seek copyright protection when its product designs […]
Secondary Meaning: Proof is in the Chant
September 30, 2014 Basketball in the Philippines is a sport that generates intense passion. While local players do not yet stand on the same footing as world-class NBA players, they are still feted as heroes here. Any team that gets to the top of the heap acquires legendary status, and its name would seemingly echo […]
Starbucks Wins Its Fight Against “FRAP” Trademark in the Philippines
September 30, 2014 The Philippines’ Bureau of Legal Affairs sustained the opposition of Starbucks Coffee Co. against a trademark application for “THE FRAP BAR Everyone Deserves Frap and Design” filed by Café De Manila Corporation in connection with coffee. In its opposition, Starbucks asserted that Café de Manila should not be allowed to register the […]
Benson and Hedges Misses a Bulls Eye in a Trademark Contest with Philip Morris
September 13, 2014 Benson and Hedges (Overseas) Limited opposed an application filed by Philip Morris Brands Sarl for a three-dimensional shape of an ICE BALL LENS claiming confusing similarity with earlier trademark registrations for LUCKY STRIKE featuring a BULLS EYE device. Benson asserted expanded protection for its BULLS EYE device under the well-known mark provision […]
Philippines Implements a System of Pre-Grant Third Party Review in Patent Applications
September 11, 2014 The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHIL) has announced its much-delayed implementation of a pre-grant Community Review Process (CRP) for patent applications. In a gathering of industry representatives held at the IPOPHIL on September 10, 2014, the Director of the Bureau of Patents announced that the Bureau of Patents will adopt […]
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 […]