SC stops Japan Home Center from using Daiso trademark

Low-cost retailer Japan Home Center has no legal right to use the trademark Daiso, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Japan-based Daiso Industries affirming an earlier decision of the Court of Appeals (CA).

 

Japan Home Center intended to ride on the pre-existing goodwill of the trademark, Daiso Industries noted in a statement on Tuesday.

 

The company said it has been using the Daiso trademark since 1977 in at least 30 countries including the Philippines.

 

The CA earlier ruled that the Japan Home Center registered the trademark Daiso and its Japanese equivalent with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in 2005, a move which created the impression that the products being sold by the retailer were also sourced from Japan-based Daiso Industries.

 

The Daiso trademark is protected by the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the CA noted, saying any mark confusingly similar must be struck down and its registration denied, the CA said.

 

Japan’s price-point store Daiso Industries filed the complaint before the IPO in 2009, seeking the exclusive right to use the brand in the Philippines. 

 

That same year the same year, it appointed Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. as sole authorized distributor in the Philippines.

 

Last January, the IPO issued a similar ruling in favor of Daiso Industries involving local retailer MySmart One-Shop Daiso. – Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VS, GMA News