Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - The Supreme Court (SC) has reinstated the decisions of the Intellectual Property Office rejecting the application for the mark &quot;Papa Boy &amp; Device&quot; since the mark &quot;Papa&quot; is owned by UFC Philippines Inc., which has been manufacturing catsup and other condiments for decades.In a 35-page decision penned by Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-de Castro in GR No. 198889 (UFC Philippines, Inc. v. Barrio Fiesta Manufacturing Corporation) promulgated on January 20, 2016, the Court&#x27;s First Division granted the petition of UFC (now merged with Nutri-Asia, Inc.) to set aside the June 23, 2011 Decision and October 4, 2011 Resolution of the Court of Appeals (CA).Finding merit in the petition, the SC ruled that the CA erred in applying the holistic test and in reversing and setting aside the March 26, 2008 Decision of the Bureau of Legal Affairs of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO-BLA) and the January 29, 2009 decision of the Director General of the IPO, both of which rejected respondent&#x27;s application for the mark &quot;Papa Boy &amp; Device.&quot;&quot;The findings of fact of the highly technical agency, the Intellectual Property Office, which has the expertise in this field, should have been given great weight by the Court of Appeals,&quot; the SC stressed.In 2002, respondent Barrio Fiesta Manufacturing Corporation filed application for the mark for goods under Class 30, specifically for lechon sauce.Nutri-Asia opposed the application, contending that &quot;Papa Boy &amp; Device&quot; is confusingly similar with its &quot;Papa&quot; marks, considering that its ketchup product and respondent&#x27;s lechon sauce product are related articles that fall under the same Class 30.The mark &quot;Papa&quot; for use on banana catsup and other similar goods was first used in 1954 by Neri Papa, taken from his surname. Mr. Papa used the mark &quot;Papa&quot; for about 27 years until he assigned the said mark to Hernan D. Reyes, who subsequently filed an application to register the mark.The SC ruled that a scrutiny of both petitioner&#x27;s and respondent&#x27;s respective marks would show that the IPO-BLA and the IPO Director General correctly found the word &quot;Papa&quot; as the dominant feature of petitioner&#x27;s mark &quot;Papa Ketsarap.&quot; Contrary to respondent&#x27;s contention, &quot;Ketsarap&quot; cannot be the dominant feature of the mark as it is merely descriptive of the product.Furthermore, it is the &quot;Papa&quot; mark that has been in commercial use for decades and has established awareness and goodwill among consumers.Agreeing with the IPO-BLA, the SC stressed that the word &quot;Papa&quot; is also the dominant feature of respondent&#x27;s &quot;Papa Boy &amp; Device&quot; mark subject of the application, such that the word &quot;Papa&quot; is written on top of and before the other words such that it is the first word/figure that catches the eyes.The SC added, as correctly pointed out by the IPO Director General, that the part of respondent&#x27;s mark which appears prominently to the eyes and ears is the phrase &quot;Papa Boy&quot; and that is what a purchaser of respondent&#x27;s product would immediately recall, not the smiling hog in the logo.The SC agreed that &quot;Papa Boy &amp; Device&quot; cannot be registered because this mark is related to a product, lechon sauce, an everyday all-purpose condiment and sauce, that is not subjected to great scrutiny and care by the casual purchaser, who knows from regular visits to the grocery store under what aisle to find it, in which bottle it is contained, and approximately how much it costs. Since petitioner&#x27;s product, catsup, is also a household product found on the same grocery aisle, in similar packaging, the public could think that petitioner had expanded its product mix to include lechon sauce, and that the &quot;Papa Boy&quot; lechon sauce is now part of the &quot;Papa&quot; family of sauces.Furthermore, the SC said that if &quot;Papa Boy &amp; Device&quot; is allowed registration, confusion of business may set in, and petitioner&#x27;s hard-earned goodwill may be associated to the newer product introduced by respondent, all because of the use of the dominant feature of petitioner&#x27;s mark on respondent&#x27;s mark, which is the word &quot;Papa.It noted that the words &quot;Barrio Fiesta&quot; are not included in the mark, and although printed on the label of respondent&#x27;s lechon sauce packaging, still do not remove the impression that &quot;Papa Boy&quot; is a product owned by the manufacturer of &quot;Papa&quot; catsup, by virtue of the use of dominant feature. It is possible that petitioner could expand its business to include lechon sauce, and that would be well within petitioner&#x27;s rights, but the existence of &quot;Papa Boy&quot; lechon sauce would already eliminate this possibility and deprive petitioner of its rights as an owner of a valid mark included in the Intellectual Property Code.The SC likewise ruled that the CA erred in finding that &quot;Papa,&quot; being a common term of endearment for one&#x27;s father, is a word over which petitioner could not claim exclusive use and ownership. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines &quot;Papa&quot; simply as &quot;a person&#x27;s father.&quot; True, a person&#x27;s father has no logical connection with catsup products, and that precisely makes &quot;Papa&quot; as an arbitrary mark capable of being registered, as it is distinctive, coming from a family name that started the brand several decades ago.The SC stressed that what was registered was not the word &quot;Papa&quot; as defined in the dictionary, but the word &quot;Papa&quot; as the last name of the original owner of the brand. In fact, being part of several of petitioner&#x27;s marks, there is no question that the IPO has found &quot;Papa&quot; to be a registrable mark.

MANILA - The Supreme Court has reinstated the decisions of the Intellectual Property Office rejecting the application for the mark "Papa Boy & Device" since the mark "Papa" is owned by UFC Philippines Inc., which has been manufacturing catsup and other condiments for decades.

SC: UFC owns 'Papa' trademark

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SC: UFC owns 'Papa' trademark

Ina Reformina,

ABS-CBN News

Published February 29, 2016 06:38 PM PHT

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catsup

Barrio Fiesta

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