Court of Appeals affirms P24.7 million copyright case vs Chinese firm

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld the civil liability of a Chinese company and its local partners for copyright infringement on textbooks of a local publishing firm.

In an 11-page decision promulgated last April 11 but released to the media only last week, the CA’s 11th Division affirmed the December 2017 ruling of Manila City Regional Trial Court Branch 24 on the landmark case involving China-based Fujian New Technology Color Making and Printing Co. Ltd. and its local partners M.Y. Intercontinental Trading Corp., MITC owner Edwin Uy, and Allianz Marketing and Publishing Corp.

The CA, in a decision penned by Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario, agreed with the RTC’s ruling that found the companies guilty of copyright infringement and ordered them to pay P24,695,830 in damages to St. Mary’s Publishing Corp. (SMPC).

The CA likewise affirmed the trial court’s order requiring the companies to desist from printing, copying, importing, revising, distributing, reproducing, promoting and selling of pertinent SMPC textbooks and copies, including revised editions or other formatted versions of these works.

The CA dismissed the petition filed by the Chinese firm and its partners for lack of merit.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) litigator Oscar Manahan, who served as counsel for the plaintiffs in this case, said copyright owners and publishers of copyrighted works may now fully avail of their legal remedies citing this landmark jurisprudence. 

He explained that this ruling is consistent with the Philippines’ commitment to recognize and enforce copyright laws in the Philippines as a party to the Berne Convention.

Manahan believes that this development also highlights the importance of copyrights protected under Philippine Copyright law (RA 8293) and the Berne Convention and enforceable against both the foreign company based in China and three local defendants. 

Records showed that SMPC and its president, Jerry Vicente Catabijan, filed the civil case after entering a contract with MITC to print its textbooks but MITC failed to deliver the books. 

The SMPC later found that Fujian authorized MITC to enter into a contract to sell the books and the textbooks were then imported by MITC and Allianz, and sold through Allianz.

The RTC directed MITC, Uy, Fujian New Technology and Allianz to “desist from printing and distributing the textbooks and were ordered to pay damages of P18.06 million, moral damages of P1 million, exemplary damages of P2 million, attorney’s fees of P500,000 and court costs.”