Intellectual Property

• In the case of a work commissioned by a person other than an employer of the author and who pays for it and the work is made in pursuance of the commission, the person who so commissioned the work shall have ownership of the work, but the copyright thereto shall remain with the creator, unless there is a written stipulation to the contrary.
• No protection related to copyright shall extend to any idea, procedure, system, method or operation, concept, principle, discovery or mere data as such, even if they are expressed, explained, illustrated or embodied in a work; news of the day and other miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press information; or any official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature, as well as any official translation thereof.
• Fair use of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching including multiple copies for classroom use scholarship, research and similar purposes is not an infringement of copyright.
• If you posted your selfie on Instagram today, it shall be protected for 50 years commencing on January 1, 2024.
• When someone wrote and sent you a letter, the letter belongs to you, but you cannot disclose the contents of the letter without the consent of the sender.
• The term of a patent is 20 years from the date of application and non-renewable.
• Under the Doctrine of Equivalents, an infringement also takes place when a device appropriates a prior invention by incorporating its innovative concept and, although with some modification and change, performs substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve substantially the same result.
• If two or more persons have made the invention separately and independently of each other the right to the patent shall belong to the person who first filed an application for such invention.
• The term of a trademark is 10 years from the date of registration and renewable for another 10 years thereafter without limit.
• The owner of a well-known mark registered in the Philippines has rights that extends even to dissimilar kinds of goods.