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contracted with Metro Industrial Services.

They installed these lightboxes in different SM city


1987 Constitution branches, including Cubao and Makati, with association with North Edsa Marketing Inc
ARTICLE XIV (NEMI), SMI's sister company. Petitioner requested SMI and NEMI to put down their
Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture, and Sports installations of the light boxes, and payment of compensatory damages worth P20M.
Claiming that respondents failed to comply, they filed a case for infringement of trademark
Science and Technology and copyright, unfair competition and damages. RTC ruled in favor of petitioner, but CA
reversed.
SECTION 13. The State shall protect and secure the exclusive rights of scientists, inventors,
ISSUES:
artists, and other gifted citizens to their intellectual property and creations, particularly when
(1) Whether there was a copyright infringement
beneficial to the people, for such period as may be provided by law.
(2) Whether there was a patent infringement
(3) Whether there was a trademark infringement
New Civil Code (4) Whether there was unfair competition

Article 722. The author and the composer, mentioned in Nos. 1 and 2 of the preceding RULING: No to all.
article, shall have the ownership of their creations even before the publication of the same. (1) Copyright is a statutory right, subject to the terms and conditions specified in the statute.
Once their works are published, their rights are governed by the Copyright laws. Therefore, it can only cover the works falling within the statutory enumeration or
description. Since the copyright was classified under class "O" works, which includes "prints,
The painter, sculptor or other artist shall have dominion over the product of his art even pictorial illustrations, advertising copies, labels, tags and box wraps," and does not include
before it is copyrighted. The scientist or technologist has the ownership of his discovery or the light box itself. A lightbox, even admitted by the president of petitioner company, was
invention even before it is patented. (n) neither a literary nor an artistic work but an engineering or marketing invention, thus not
included under a copyright.

Article 723. Letters and other private communications in writing are owned by the person to (2) Petitioner was not able to secure a patent for its lightboxes, and cannot legally prevent
whom they are addressed and delivered, but they cannot be published or disseminated anyone from manufacturing or commercially using the same. Patent has a three-fold
without the consent of the writer or his heirs. However, the court may authorize their purpose: a) to foster and reward invention; b) promotes disclosures of invention and permit
publication or dissemination if the public good or the interest of justice so requires. (n) public to use the same upon expiration; c) stringent requirements for patent protection to
ensure in the public domain remain there for free use of the public. Since petitioner was not
Article 724. Special laws govern copyright and patent. (429a) able to go through such examination, it cannot exclude others from manufacturing, or selling
such lightboxes. No patent, no protection.

PEARL & DEAN PHIL INC. VS. SHOEMART- Trademark, Copyright and Patents (3) The certificate of registration issued by the Director of Patents gives exclusive right to use
its own symbol only to the description specified in the certificate. It cannot prevent others to
Trademark, copyright and patents are different intellectual property rights that cannot be interchanged use the same trademark with a different description.
with one another. A trademark is any visible sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of an
enterprise and shall include a stamped or marked container of goods. The scope of a copyright is
(4) "Poster Ads" is a general term that cannot be associated specifically to Pearl and Dean,
confined to literary and artistic works which are original intellectual creations in the literary and artistic
domain. Patentable inventions refer to any technical solution of a problem in any field of human activity
thus it cannot be considered to use such term to be unfair competition against the petitioner.
which is new, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable.

FACTS:
Pearl and Dean is a corporation in the manufacture of advertising display units also known as
light boxes, which were manufactured by Metro Industrial Services. A copyright Registration
was obtained in 1981. These were marketed in the name of "Poster Ads". They also applied
for a registration of trademark with the Bureau of Patents in 1983, but was only approved in
19988. In 1985, petitioner had n agreement with respondent Shoemart Inc (SMI) to install
these light boxes in their Makati and Cubao branch, Only the Makati branch was able to sigh
the agreement. In 1986, the contract was rescinded unilaterally by SMI, and instead

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