The legal battle for the rightful owner of the Eat Bulaga! trademark is far from finished.
GMA News Online reported over the weekend that Television and Production Exponents Inc. (TAPE) has submitted a petition requesting a temporary restraining order and preliminary mandatory injunction concerning the court's ruling on the name "Eat Bulaga!"
Eat Bulaga is the country's longest-running noontime show and is produced by TAPE Inc. and airs on GMA Network.
Since its television debut in 1979, the program has been hosted by comedians Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey de Leon, or TVJ.
However, management changes, including plans to reformat the program and internal issues, drove the trio out of the company and the show on May 31, 2023.
Read:
TAPE's Bullet Jalosjos on TVJ departing from Eat Bulaga!: "It was bound to happen."
Tito Sotto on the day TVJ left TAPE: "Parang sila ang may-ari sa amin. Nakakapikon na."
Tito, Vic, and Joey, along with longtime mainstays of Eat Bulaga, transferred to rival network TV5 and put up a new noontime show they called E.A.T.
Read:
Eat Bulaga! war and how it changes Philippine TV: A Timeline
Eat Bulaga, meanwhile, moved on and introduced a new set of hosts.
Believing they have the right to keep the Eat Bulaga! name, TVJ took TAPE to court, setting in motion a bitter legal dispute between the two camps.
Read: TAPE asks IPOPHIL to deny TVJ applications for "Eat Bulaga" trademark
On December 22, 2023, the Marikina City Regional Trial Court ordered TAPE and GMA Network to relinquish the usage of the Eat Bulaga! trademark.
The decision, which was made public on January 5, 2024, was handed down after the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) sided with TVJ in its copyright case against TAPE for the Eat Bulaga! trademark.
With TVJ regaining the Eat Bulaga! name, TAPE had no choice but to rebrand its noontime program, going with the less catchy name Tahanang Pinakamasaya.
Read: Isko Moreno "shaken but not disheartened" after EB was renamed Tahanang Pinakamasaya
TAPE INC. FIGHTS BACK
Now, TAPE is seeking the Court of Appeals (CA) to junk the previous decision that paved the way for TVJ's legal victory.
The ruling according to TAPE legal counsel and spokesperson Atty. Maggie Garduque was a "blatant violation of the rules and the disrespect of the jurisdiction of the IPO on the pending trademark cases."
Atty. Garduque argues that in the previous complaint, TVJ inquired to the court whether TAPE or GMA Network had engaged in copyright infringement and unfair competition by broadcasting previous episodes of Eat Bulaga!
She emphasized that there was no request made to the court to adjudicate trademark ownership or to invalidate TAPE's registered trademarks for Eat Bulaga!
"What is needed is for the court to decide if TVJ have copyright ownership over these audio-visual recordings of past episodes of Eat Bulaga to rule whether copyright infringement and unfair competition are committed," said Atty. Garduque.
"The issue on trademark ownership and cancelation is irrelevant and off-tangent in this case."