FOR YEARS, there was the Big Mac vs the Big Mak. Hamburger chain McDonald’s sued local mobile hamburger chain L.C. Big Mak for using a trademark similar to McDonald’s Big Mac.
Three years ago, after a 15-year legal battle, McDonald’s won over L.C. Big Mak. The latter was found by the Supreme Court guilty of infringement and unfair competition as consumers can confuse the Big Mak for the real Big Mac.
How safe is your trademark? How can you ensure that your products will not be cloned and passed off under a different brand name? How should you deal with counterfeiters who copy your product from its form down to its label?
Admittedly, small and medium scale enterprises are very much vulnerable to counterfeiting of their products, services, and business processes. This is why the SME entrepreneur must be aware of and guard his intellectual property rights.
“Failure to protect one’s intellectual property could lead to theft of ideas and diminished revenues, resulting to lesser competitive edge in the market,” shares lawyer Michael Untalan, senior partner at Bengzon Negre Untalan Intellectual Property Lawyers.
Below are Atty. Untalan’s tips for SME owners on how you can protect your intellectual assets, which includes trademarks (logo or brand), copyrights, patents, and trade secrets:
1. Take stock of your possible IP assets.
2. Familiarize yourself with IP laws. Check out the website of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines.
3. Consult with IP lawyers to evaluate your intellectual properties and enforce your rights.
4. Register your intellectual property with the IPO.
On the other side of the coin, make sure that the trademark you are thinking of using is not registered by another entity. Just recently, the maker of local Harvard Jeans was sued by, yes indeed, Harvard University of the US. A big headache. 
July 7th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
You’re right. They’re hoping to get notice the easy way. Only they failed to realize the consequences this may brought them. Well, they’re noticed alright.. in a different sense.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
We have to use the Filipinos ingenuity also to create original ideas. We can’t make “marks” that are obviously created to sound like or mimic a better known brand.