Sunday, April 13, 2014

A ham fisted attempt at infringement in the Philippines


The Philippines Court of Appeals has ruled on a case of trademark infringement and unfair completion. The case, San Miguel Pure Foods Company Inc. v Foodsphere Inc. involved SMs “CDO Pista Ham”. SM alleged Foodsphere's “Fiesta Ham” infringed its registered trademark and amounted to unfair competition. It filed the case in 2010 at the IPO BLA, and the appeal was decided in March 2013. 

Foodsphere already had a trademark for FIESTA registered so there was no infringement. Meanwhile the packaging similarities complained of by SM were held not to be close enough as they comprised images of sliced ham with fruit.  It seems Foodsphere stayed just the right side of the line to avoid infringing.

No comments:

Post a Comment