G.R. No. 148222 – 409 SCRA 231 – Mercantile Law – Intellectual Property – Law on Copyright – Copyrightable Subject
Pearl & Dean (Phil), Inc. is a corporation engaged in the manufacture of advertising display units called light boxes. In January 1981, Pearl & Dean was able to acquire copyrights over the designs of the display units. In 1988, their trademark application for “Poster Ads” was approved; they used the same trademark to advertise their light boxes.
In 1985, Pearl & Dean negotiated with Shoemart, Inc. (SM) so that the former may be contracted to install light boxes in the ad spaces of SM. Eventually, SM rejected Pearl & Dean’s proposal.
Two years later, Pearl & Dean received report that light boxes, exactly the same as theirs, were being used by SM in their ad spaces. They demanded SM to stop using the light boxes and at the same time asked for damages amounting to P20M. SM refused to pay damages though they removed the light boxes. Pearl & Dean eventually sued SM. SM argued that it did not infringe on Pearl & Dean’s trademark because Pearl & Dean’s trademark is only applicable to envelopes and stationeries and not to the type of ad spaces owned by SM. SM also averred that “Poster Ads” is a generic term hence it is not subject to trademark registration. SM also averred that the actual light boxes are not copyrightable. The RTC ruled in favor of Pearl & Dean. But the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of SM.
ISSUE: Whether or not the Court of Appeals is correct.
HELD: Yes. The light boxes cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered as either prints, pictorial illustrations, advertising copies, labels, tags or box wraps, to be properly classified as a copyrightable; what was copyrighted were the technical drawings only, and not the light boxes themselves. In other cases, it was held that there is no copyright infringement when one who, without being authorized, uses a copyrighted architectural plan to construct a structure. This is because the copyright does not extend to the structures themselves.
On the trademark infringement allegation, the words “Poster Ads” are a simple contraction of the generic term poster advertising. In the absence of any convincing proof that “Poster Ads” has acquired a secondary meaning in this jurisdiction, Pearl & Dean’s exclusive right to the use of “Poster Ads” is limited to what is written in its certificate of registration, namely, stationeries.
