Chinese firm guilty of ‘pirating’ books

A Chinese company and its local business partners have been ordered to pay nearly P25 million in damages to a Filipino publishing firm for printing and distributing its educational books without permission.

In a Dec. 8 ruling, Judge Ma. Victoria Soriano-Villadolid of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 24 found Fujian New Technology Color Making and Printing Company LTD, M.Y. Intercontinental Trading Corp. owner Tedwin T. Uy and Allianz Marketing and Publishing Corp. guilty of copyright infringement.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by St. Mary’s Publishing Corp. (SMPC) owner Jerry Vicente Catabijan who accused the respondents of unlawfully publishing 12 textbooks sold to the Department of Education offices in Zamboanga, Sorsogon and Laguna in 2009.

In a 35-page decision, Villadolid upheld SMPC’s ownership of the copyright for the production and distribution of the scholastic reading materials for grade school students.

“The court finds the concerted acts of defendants in bad faith…. Evidently, defendants’ successive repetitive acts, in combination, resulted in the infringement of (SMPC’s) copyrights,” the judge said.

Citing the documentary evidence presented during trial, Villadolid concluded that the certificates of copyright which Fujian, Uy and Allianz used to justify the printing of the books were void.

In his complaint, Catabijan said the SMPC granted three separate “authority to print” to Fujian in 2009 to produce the textbooks in the latter’s factory in China and a purchase order for 301,000 copies of the books worth P11.3 million.

He added that Fujian failed to deliver the printed textbooks to SMPC while it also entered into an agreement with Uy to sell the books using spurious documents.

Oscar Manahan, SMPC’s lawyer, said the ruling was consistent with the country’s commitment to the Berne Convention which forged international cooperation in recognizing and protecting intellectual property rights.