1.

Are light boxes subject to patents or copyright or trademark? Explain your answer.
Light boxes can be subject to patents if the inventor of the said thing acquired
patent right for the protection of his/her invention
Light boxes cannot be subject to copyright since light boxes are generally
technical solutions to a more efficient advertising and not a literary or artistic work.
Light boxes cannot be subject to trademark since it is an electrically operated
backlit advertising units that is used by general advertising agencies and it cannot serve
as a visible distinguishing symbol.

2. Distinguish patents from trademark and copyright.

A trademark is any visible sign capable of distinguishing the goods (trademark)
or services (service mark) of an enterprise and shall include a stamped or marked
container of goods, while a copyright is confined to literary and artistic works which are
original intellectual creations in the literary and artistic domain protected from the
moment of their creation.

3. What do we mean by Class "O" works in copyright law? Explain

Class “O” works are the rights granted subsist with respect to Prints, pictorial
illustrations, advertising copies, labels, tags, and box wraps.

4. Was there a copyright infringement in Pearl and Dean case? Explain. How about
patent infringement? Explain

None. P & D secured its copyright under the classification class "O" work. This
being so, petitioner’s copyright protection extended only to the technical drawings and
not to the light box. Therefore, SMI did not incur any copyright infringement on the
light boxes.

None. P & D never secured a patent for the light boxes. It therefore acquired no
patent rights which could have protected its invention, if in fact it really was. And
because it had no patent, petitioner could not legally prevent anyone from
manufacturing or commercially using the contraption.  No patent, no protection.

5. Was the " Poster Ads" by Pearl and Dean be considered a trademark under our laws?
Was there trademark infringement in this case?
In the case, “Poster Ads” could qualify as a trademark, but there was no
trademark infringement since P & D failed to secure a trademark registration for specific
use on the light boxes meant that there could not have been any trademark
infringement since registration was an essential element thereof.

6. What is unfair competition? Was there an unfair competition in the case of Pearl and
Dean as held by the Supreme Court?  
Unfair competition happens when a business infringes the right of the other
business which offers the same field of services.
None. There was no evidence that P & D’s use of “Poster Ads” was distinctive or well-
known. As noted by the Court of Appeals, petitioner’s expert witnesses himself had
testified that” ‘Poster Ads’ was too generic a name. “Poster Ads” was generic and
incapable of being used as a trademark because it was used in the field of poster
advertising, the very business engaged in by petitioner. 

7. Discuss the original and appellate jurisdiction of the IPO, i.e. the Director General
and the Bureau Directors as provided under RA 10372.

Director General and Deputies Director General shall exercise exclusive appellate
jurisdiction over all decisions rendered by the Director of Legal Affairs, the Director of
Patents, the Director of Trademarks, the Director of Copyright and Other Related
Rights, and the Director of the Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer
Bureau. The decisions of the Director General in the exercise of his appellate jurisdiction
in respect of the decisions of the Director of Patents, the Director of Trademarks and
the Director of Copyright and Other Related Rights shall be appealable to the Court of
Appeals in accordance with the Rules of Court; and those in respect of the decisions of
the Director of the Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer Bureau shall
be appealable to the Secretary of Trade and Industry

The Bureau of Copyright and Other Related Rights Exercise original jurisdiction to
resolve disputes relating to the terms of a license involving the author’s right to public
performance or other communication of his work