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TVJ's fight for 'Eat Bulaga' continues despite TAPE's trademark renewal


MANILA, Philippines, August 9 ------ Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon's legal counsel Enrique dela Cruz Jr. said that the camp of TVJ doesn't mind even if the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has renewed Television and Production Exponents (TAPE) Inc. "Eat Bulaga's" trademark registration for another 10 years.


In a report by Inquirer, Dela Cruz said that the renewal has a little bearing on their petition for cancelation. “Renewal of trademark registration is ministerial on the part of IPO Bureau of Trademarks, as long as the applicant submits a declaration of actual use and pays the fee. The renewal is without prejudice to the petition for cancellation which is pending sa Bureau of Legal Affairs ng IPO. Separate office sya,” Dela Cruz said. “Kailangan lang mag bayad online at mag file ng DAU – Declaration of Actual Use, mare-renew na agad ang registration,” he added.


Meanwhile, Tito failed to take the witness stand at the recent hearing of the copyright case before the Marikina Regional Trial Court. Tito was called by their lawyer to testify but a TAPE counsel opposed because he did not submit a judicial affidavit and he was not excluded during the testimony of Joey de Leon.


Presiding Judge Romeo Dizon Tagra sustained the defendants, directing Tito to submit his judicial affidavit or he will no longer be allowed to submit his testimony. “Besides, plaintiff Vicente Sotto has already his joint affidavit which he could have used as his testimony in support of the plaintiffs’ WPI application were it not of the directive of the court to submit a JA instead for convenience purposes,” the Marikina court order read.


Tito posted on his Twitter account that he already submitted an affidavit weeks ago. "I was prevented from testifying by the TAPE / GMA lawyers wanting a separate judicial affidavit when in fact we had a submitted affidavit weeks ago. 'Yun ang totoo," he said.


Source: philstar.com

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