The lawyer of the Television and Production Exponents Inc. (TAPE) said that the company has been acknowledged by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) as the prior registrant of the trademark “Eat Bulaga.”  This is the explanation made by TAPE lawyer Maggie Abraham-Garduque based on a certificate of registration and a letter issued by IPOPHL.  The new hosts of "Eat Bulaga" (top) and Tito, Vic and Joey (bottom) (Photos from TAPE's Facebook page, and "Eat Bulaga 1979" Instagram account)
TAPE lawyer Maggie Abraham-Garduque (Photo from her Facebook account)
The certificate of registration of the "Eat Bulaga" trademark  (Contributed photo)
Amid the legal dispute on who owns the “Eat Bulaga” trademark, Abraham-Garduque asserted that TAPE is its legal owner.  Abraham-Garduque said TAPE first registered the trademark “Eat Bulaga” in 1991 and it was renewed in 2013.  A copy of the 2013 registration showed TAPE owning the “Eat Bulaga” trademark.  She said that in a letter to TAPE CEO and president Romeo Jalosjos, IPOPHL’s Jesus Antonio Ros, director of the Bureau of Trademarks, said, “We understand that the company is the prior registrant of the mark [‘Eat Bulaga’ logo] bearing Registration No. 4-2011-005951.”  Jalosjos sent a letter to IPOPHL in April after Joey de Leon applied to register the trademark “Eat Bulaga” in March this year, before he and Tito and Vic Sotto, also known as TVJ, left “Eat Bulaga.”  “Please note that since 1991, the name ‘EAT BULAGA’ has already been registered as a Trademark and an intellectual property of our company, Television and Production Exponents Inc. (hereinafter referred to as ‘TAPE’) with your office under Registration Number 4-2011-5951 Serial No.42011005951,” said Jalosjos in the letter.  He added, “As such, any attempt by any third party to use, much less register the name ‘EAT BULAGA’ as a trademark or part of a trademark cannot and should not be allowed.”  Abraham-Garduque said the important thing is that the “IPO acknowledged that TAPE was the prior registrant of the trademark ‘Eat Bulaga.’ It is not holding a prior application but actually a registration already.” “If you are a registrant of a trademark, it has been examined and approved by the IPO. Under the rules, if there is an infringement of trademark, the owner of said trademark can file a case for infringement, unfair competition and/or false designation,” she said.  TVJ reportedly filed a petition to cancel TAPE’s trademark of “Eat Bulaga.”  “But as long as there is no cancellation of the trademark, the trademark ‘Eat Bulaga’ will be owned and registered under TAPE Inc. It is just paradoxical na for several years that TAPE Inc. owns the trademark of ‘Eat Bulaga’ and there were periods to oppose when it was applied and renewed, it was only in 2023 when TVJ filed an application, the year when the registration of TAPE will expire,” she said.