THE battle for the “Eat Bulaga” name began Thursday with the first hearing on the copyright infringement and unfair competition case that veteran hosts Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey de Leon filed against Television and Production Exponents Inc. and GMA Network.
Tito Sotto and De Leon came to the Marikina regional trial court and asserted their claim that they own “Eat Bulaga” as De Leon had coined it.
Sotto said the bottomline is that they have the copyright over the name as this belongs to whoever came up with it.
He downplayed TAPE’s contention that it had trademarked the name, pointing out that trademarks can be canceled and have an expiration date.
“Iba yung copyright. Ang tanong dito kasi, ang sinasabi namin sa korte, sino yung may ari ng pangalang Eat Bulaga? We are saying they are deceiving the people by saying na sila yung Eat Bulaga,” he told reporters after the hearing.
Nevertheless, the three noontime show hosts have filed a trademark application for “Eat Bulaga.”
TAPE’s trademark for Eat “Bulaga” expired last month and it has sought to renew it.
Sotto said the TAPE-produced noontime show could continue to air if it wishes, but it must stop calling the show“Eat Bulaga.”
“Pwede naman ituloy nila ‘yung programa nila kung gusto nila, pero palitan nila ‘yung pangalan nila, ‘yun ang punto namin,” he said.
The three hosts, known collectively as TVJ, earlier asked the Marikina court for an injunction to stop TAPE and GMA from using “Eat Bulaga.”
They said they were independent talent-hosts when the noontime show was conceptualized, and they retained ownership of intellectual property creations relative to the show. One of their intellectual properties is the word mark “Eat Bulaga,” which De Leon created and which has been part of the show’s iconic title, they said.
But TAPE’s lawyer Maggie Garduque had contended that there was no copyright infringement.
Garduque said the “Eat Bulaga” name, the design of the name and the logo is a trademark and not subject of copyright.
Since TAPE has the registration of the tradename “Eat Bulaga,” the hosts cannot file an infringement case against the registered owner of the trademark, she said.
