G.R. No. L-6235
March 28, 1955
ONG AI GUI alias TAN AI GUI, applicant-petitioner,
vs.the Director of the Philippines Patent Office, respondent.
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND COMPANY, intervenor.
FACTS:
Applicant-petitionerTan
Ai gui filed an application with the Director of Patents for the registration
of the following tradename: "20th Century Nylon Shirts Factory, which the
latter denied.
RULING:
The
Court upheld the Director of Patents reasoning that a word or a combination of
words, in this case “nylon” and “shirt factory”, which is merely descriptive of
an article of trade, or of its composition, characteristics, or qualities,
cannot be appropriated and protected as a trademark to the exclusion of its use
by others.
Furthermore, the use of the term "nylon" in the tradename
is both "descriptive" and "deceptively and misdescriptive"
of the applicant-appellant's business, for apparently he does not use nylon in
the manufacture of the articles he produces and sells. Not to mention, the word
“nylon” is a general term which is not distinctive and, thus, cannot be
afforded secondary meaning attributable petitioner’s business so as to permit
registration.
Applicant
petitioner was not entitled to the exclusive use of the terms
