Chinese printing firm ordered to pay P24.7-M for copyright infringement

The Manila City Metropolitan Trial court found a Chinese firm and three local partners guilty of copyright infringement and ordered them to pay P24.7 million to a Filipino publisher.

Branch 24 Presiding Judge Ma. Victoria A. Soriano-Villadolid issued a decision on Dec. 8 granting St. Mary’s Publishing Corp. (SMPC) and owner Jerry Vicente S. Catabijan’s copyright infringement complaint against Fujian New Technology Color Making and Printing Company, LTD (Fujian); M.Y. Intercontinental Trading Corp. (MITC), its owner Tedwin T. Uy; and Allianz Marketing and Publishing Corp. (Allianz).

According to the 35-page decision of the court, Judge Villadolid required MITC, Uy, Allianz and Fujian to pay a total amount of P24,695,830, including P18.06 million in actual damages, P1 million in moral damages, P2 million in exemplary damages, P500,000 in attorney’s fees and P3,135,000 million in costs of suit.

“Wherefore, premises considered, defendants M.Y. International Trading Corporation, Tedwin T. Uy, Fujian New Technology Color Making and Printing Company, Ltd., and Allianz Marketing and Publishing Corporation are hereby ordered to: Desist from printing, copying, importing, revising, distributing, reproducing, promoting, and selling (of the subject) textbooks and copies thereof including copies of the Revised Editions or other formatted version of said works,” ruled Judge Villadolid.

The case was filed after a printing contract was signed between SMPC and Fujian. However, Fujian did not deliver the printed books to SMPC, but to its local partners.

Fujian then issued MITC “The Authority to Enter into Contract to Market and to Sell the textbooks.” Allianz, meanwhile, imported the textbooks from China to Philippines. /je