CA affirms SMC infringement case vs Tanduay

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld with finality the infringement claim of beverage firm Ginebra San Miguel Inc. (GSMI) against Tanduay Distillers Inc. (TDI) over the latter’s use of “Ginebra Kapitan” brand in its gin product.

In a five-page resolution released recently, the special 16th division of the appellate court affirmed its ruling in Nov. last year favoring GSMI of Ramon Ang and dismissed the appeal filed by TDI of Lucio Tan.

“Anent the other matters raised by Tanduay in its motion for reconsideration, e.g. the doctrine of secondary meaning and trademark infringement, clearly, these issues were already exhaustively dissected, analyzed and discussed in our decision. Thus, the very same issues, being mere repetitions, need not be revisited,” read the ruling penned by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda.

The CA junked the claim of Tanduay that the court should have dismissed outright GSMI’s petition for being improper and on the ground of forum shopping.

The appellate court noted Tanduay never moved for the dismissal of the appeal pending before it despite knowledge that a petition review was earlier filed by Ginebra before another division.

“And even after a decision was rendered in the said petition, Tanduay never raised the issues on the impropriety of the mode of appeal and of forum shopping... In any event, we find the absence of forum shopping in the instant case,” it stressed.

In the assailed ruling, the CA granted the petition of GSMI and set aside the Oct. 5, 2012 ruling of the Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court which dismissed its complaint for unfair competition, infringement and damages against TDI.