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FACTS:Pearl and Dean Inc. is a corporation engaged in the manufacture of advertising display units called light boxes. In January 1981, Pearl and Dean was able to acquire copyrights over the designs of the display units. In 1988, their trademark application for Poster Ads was approved; they used the same trademark to advertise their light boxes. In 1985, Pearl and Dean negotiated with Shoemart Inc. (SM) so that the former may be contracted to install light boxes in the ad spaces of SM. Eventually, SM rejected Pearl and Deans proposal. Two years later, Pear and Dean received report that light boxes exactly the same as theirs are being used by SM in their ad spaces. They demanded SM to stop using the light boxes and at the same time asked for damages amounting to P20 M. SM refused to pay damages though they struck down the light boxes. Pearl and Dean eventually sued SM. SM argued that it did not infringe on Pearl and Deans trademark because Pearl and Deans trademark is only applicable to envelopes and stationeries and not to the type of ad spaces owned by SM. SM also averred that Poster Ads is a generic term hence it is not subject to trademark registration. SM also averred that the actual light boxes are not copyrightable. The RTC ruled in favor of Pearl and Dean. But the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of SM. ISSUE: Whether or not the Court of Appeals is correct. HELD: Yes. The light boxes cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered as either prints, pictorial illustrations, advertising copies, labels, tags or box wraps, to be properly classified as a copyrightable; what was copyrighted were the technical drawings only, and not the light boxes themselves. In other cases, it was held that there is no copyright infringement when one who, without being authorized, uses a copyrighted architectural plan to construct a structure. This is because the copyright does not extend to the structures themselves. On the trademark infringement allegation, the words Poster Ads are a simple contraction of the generic term poster advertising. In the absence of any convincing proof that Poster Ads has acquired a secondary meaning in this jurisdiction, Pearl and Deans exclusive right to the use of Poster Ads is limited to what is written in its certificate of registration, namely, stationeries.
HELD: Yes. x x x It should be noted that the private respondent does not claim to be the discoverer or inventor of the old process of tile-making. He only claims to have introduced an improvement of said process. In fact, Letters Patent No. 658 was issued by the Philippine Patent Office to the private respondent Conrado G. De Leon, to protect his rights as the inventor of an alleged new and useful improvement in the process of making pre-cast tiles. Indeed, section 7, Republic Act No. 165, as amended provides: Any invention of a new and useful machine, manufactured product or substance, process, or an improvement of the foregoing, shall be patentable.