English
Registration is the only way to secure ownership rights to a trademark.
The national trademark office of the Philippines is available at: http://www.ipophil.gov.ph/
No. There is no need to use the mark before it can be applied for registration.
Grounds for opposition include:
- Identical or confusingly similar to a internationally known trademark
- Unauthorized use of national insignia or protected emblems
- Company name rights
- Conflict with moral standards or issues with public policy
- Geographical indication in the mark
- Generic mark
- Personal name rights
- Registered design rights
- Trade name rights
- Registration under representative’s name instead of the proprietor
- Use of protected armorial bearings, state emblems or flags
- Well-known mark rights
- Breach of copyright
- Proprietary rights
- Functional, misleading, disparaging, deceptive or descriptive marks
Interested party, owner of an earlier right, and a licensee can oppose the registration.
Yes. A registration may be cancelled on these grounds:
- Unsatisfied use requirements under Section VIII.A
- Bad faith
- Prohibited marks
- Use of mark in deceptive manner
- Inclusion of a protected emblem or badge
- Conflict with morality or public order
- Geographical indication
- Generic mark
- Conflict with a personal name
- Conflict with a registered design
- Conflict with trade names
- Registration under a different name such as agent or representative of the proprietor
- Conflict with a notorious mark
- Breach of copyright
- Functional, misleading, deceptive, disparaging, not distinctive, or descriptive mark
- Proprietary rights
Yes. Registration is the only way to secure these rights:
- Exclusive right to use the mark
- Right to oppose later conflicting applications
- Right to request for an action to cancel later conflicting registrations
- Right to take a legal action against third parties for infringing the mark
- Right to take payment from third parties due to infringement
- Right to authorize or license third parties to use the mark
- Right to request for seizure of counterfeit goods bearing the mark
- Right to request for a judicial order restraining third parties to use the mark
The opposition period starts on the publication date and ends 30 days after that date. The challenger may request for a 30-day up to a 90-day extension period from the publication date.
Yes. The Philippines is a Madrid Protocol member.
Yes. Periodic statements of use are mandatory. The owner is mandated to submit a DAU (declaration of actual use) within 3 years from the date when the application was filed. Failure to do so will result to automatic cancellation.