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SC junks plea vs. Madrid Protocol


The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea challenging the constitutionality of the "Madrid Protocol" or the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks.

The Madrid Protocol is a system that facilitates trademark registration in more than one country with a single application.

The special civil action, filed by the Intellectual Property Association of the Philippines, sought to have the protocol declared as unconstitutional for lack of concurrence by the Senate, it being a treaty.

The petitioner said the implementation of the Madrid protocol would be in conflict with Republic Act No. 8923 or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.

In a resolution, however, the SC sitting en banc ruled that the President's ratification of the protocol even without the concurrence by the Senate was valid because the protocol is an executive agreement, as determined by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The SC recognized the DFA's discretion to make a preliminary determination of the nature of the agreement under Sec. 9 of Executive Orser 459 (Series of 1997).

"The court also found that there was no conflict between the Madrid Protocol and the IP Code of the Philippines insofar as the requirement of a resident agent under Section 125 of the IP Code," read the resolution.

The petitioner had argued that the Madrid Protocol would allow foreign trademark applicants to file their applications without the need for designating resident agents in the Philippines.

The SC disagreed, saying that the "difficulty, which the IPAP illustrates, is minimal, if not altogether inexistent."

The SC said the Madrid Protocol provides that applications under the Protocol are still examined according to the relevant national law, which is the IP Code.

With the Philippine accession to the protocol, Filipino brand owners gain access to a cost-effective and efficient mechanism on trademark protection not only in the Philippines but also in its major trading partners, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, one of the respondents in the petition, earlier said.

The Philippines is the 85th signatory to the Madrid Protocol, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN agency responsible for protection of intellectual property rights.

Philippine trading partners Japan, United States, China, Singapore, Korea, and Germany, are all members of the Madrid Protocol. — VVP, GMA News

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