GSMI, the hard liquor unit of food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp., filed last month a P100-million suit against tobacco and beer magnate Lucio Tan’s Tanduay for civil infringement and unfair competition.
The case stemmed from Tanduay’s latest product, Ginebra Kapitan, which GSMI argued "has the general appearance of and is nearly identical and confusingly similar with" the bottle design and labels of GSMI’s own flagship brand, Ginebra San Miguel.
With the Ginebra San Miguel brand – acknowledged as the largest selling gin brand in the world – GSMI has established itself as the country’s largest liquor firm.
In its petition, GSMI alleged that Tanduay’s use of Ginebra as a component of its Ginebra Kapitan brand "misleads the public into believing that the product is manufactured and sold by GSMI."
GSMI, through its legal counsel Poblador, Bautista and Reyes Law Offices said independent studies showed that almost all gin drinkers identify the "Ginebra" mark with "Ginebra San Miguel", "San Miguel" and "La Tondeña."
"This shows that the public has indeed identified the mark "Ginebra" with GSMI and its gin products, PBR senior partner Gilbert Reyes said.
"The extensive and continuous use of "Ginebra" as the dominant feature of its trademarks and gin products since 1834 has resulted in the mark becoming exclusively identified by the public with GSMI products," Reyes said.
It was on the strength of the Ginebra San Miguel brand that last March, the board of the former La Tondeña Distillers Inc. approved the change in the corporate name to align it with the company’s core brand and further strengthen the product’s brand equity using the San Miguel name.
GSMI has five active trademark registrations with "Ginebra" as the dominant feature of the marks, stressing that over the years the public has associated "Ginebra" exclusively with the products it manufactures.