CA affirms Tanduay infringed on SMC for use of ‘Ginebra’ trademark

The Court of Appeals dismissed the bid of Lucio Tan’s beverage company Tanduay Distillers Inc. (TDI) to reverse its ruling finding them liable for unfair competition and infringement for using San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) “Ginebra” trademark in manufacturing and selling its gin products Ginebra Kapitan.

In a five-page resolution, the appeals court’s special 16th division through Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda said TDI’s appeal failed to raise new issues to reverse the court’s Nov. 7, 2014, ruling.

“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,” the appeals court said.

On November last year, the appeals court reversed the 2012 ruling of the Mandaluyong court that dismissed the unfair competition and infringement case against TDI.

The appeals court said “the mere use of ‘Ginebra’ by Tanduay in its ‘Ginebra Kapitan’ gin products is trademark infringement by itself.”

The appellate court noted that its findings on TDI liability for trademark infringement and unfair competition are consistent with the decision dated Aug. 15, 2013, rendered by the special former 13th division on a similar case involving the same parties.

The appeals court ordered TDI to remove from the market all its gin products marked Ginebra and prohibited it from further using the name in any of its products.