Jalosjos siblings
TELEVISION and Production Exponents, (TAPE) Inc. will appeal the decision of the Marikina regional trial court that ordered it to stop using the “Eat Bulaga” and “EB” for its shows and directed the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to cancel its registration of these trademarks.
While TAPE has stopped using “Eat Bulaga” in its noontime show, its lawyer Maggie Abraham-Garduque said the production company plans to challenge before the Court of Appeals the Marikina RTC ruling because the latter “decided on matters which are not part of the prayer in the complaint.”
“TAPE vehemently believes that there is a very insisting reason to reverse this decision. Thus, they will file a petition for review before the Court of Appeals in accordance with the 2020 revised rules of procedure for intellectual property cases,” Garduque said.
She cited the portion of the RTC decision stopping TAPE from using “Eat Bulaga” and “EB,” including all the logos associated with the subject marks, and ordering the IPOPHL cancel TAPE’s trademark registrations as among those to be contested, as posted on abogado.com.ph
She said the case for cancelation of the trademark registration is still pending before the Bureau of Legal Affairs of the IPOPHL, while Joey de Leon’s trademark application for “Eat Bulaga” is pending before the the director general of the agency.
These show that the IPOPHL first acquired jurisdiction over these cases, she said.
“The court’s decision obviously preempts resolution of the IPO on these cases,” she said.
Another aspect of the ruling to be questioned is the finding that Jeny Ferre, Eat Bulaga’s former creative director, was not an employee of TAPE, which is why the copyright certificate for segments of the show belong to her.
Garduque said it was suspect that the court did consider conclusive the letter of Ferre informing TAPE that she was availing herself of the early retirement offered by the company, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue form where she named TAPE as her employer.
