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G.R. No.

115758 March 19, 2002

ELIDAD C. KHO,
doing business under the name and style of
KEC COSMETICS LABORATORY
,petitioner,

vs.

HON. COURT OF APPEALS, SUMMERVILLE GENERAL MERCHANDISING andCOMPANY,


and
ANG TIAM CHAY,
respondents.

FACTS:
The petitioner alleged that she is the registered owner of the copyrights Chin Chun Su and
OvalFacial Cream Container/Case as evidenced by certificates of copyright registrations and
patent rights on Chun Chun Su & Device and Chin Chun Su (medicated cream) after she purchased it
fromQuintin Cheng (previous registered owner in the Philippine Patent Office [PPO]).
Meanwhile, there was a decline in the petitioners business income due to the advertisement andsale
made by Summerville on petitioners product s under the same brand name and in
similarcontainers. According to Summerville, they are the exclusive and authorized importer, re-
packerand distributor of Chin Chun Su products manufactured by Shun Yi Factory of Taiwan and
that said company authorized them to register its trade name Chin Chun Su Mediated Cream with the
PPO.The application for preliminary injunction filed by petitioner was granted. Hence, espondentsmoved
for reconsideration, which was denied. The respondents then moved for nullification of said preliminary
injunction with the CA. The latter granted its petition.

ISSUE:
WON the copyright and patent over the name and container of the beauty cream product entitle the
registrant to its EXCLUSIVE use and ownership .

HELD:

NO.
The petitioner has no right for the EXCLUSIVE use of the trade name and its container.In order to be
entitled to its exclusive use, the user must sufficiently prove that she registered orused it before anybody
else did. This, petitioner failed to do.

Trademark, copyright and patents are different intellectual property rights that cannot beinterchanged
with one another. A trademark is any visible sign capable of distinguishing thegoods (trademark) or
services (service mark) of an enterprise and shall include a stamped ormarked container of goods. In
relation thereto, a trade name means the name or designationidentifying or distinguishing an
enterprise. Meanwhile, the scope of a copyright is confined toliterary and artistic works which are
original intellectual creations in the literary and artisticdomain protected from the moment of their
creation.

Patentable inventions, on the other hand,refer to any technical solution of a problem in any field of
human activity which is new, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable.

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