BIR Ruling

July 6, 1967 MEMORANDUM FOR: The Revenue Operations Head (Specific Tax) This is in connection with your request dated February 15, 1967 for legal opinion on the question as to whether or not that Office may disapprove applications for permits to import foreign brand cigarettes where the same brand of cigarettes are locally manufactured and duly registered with and approved by the Philippine Patents Office. LibLex Section 35 of Republic Act 166 provides, "No article of imported merchandise which shall copy of simulate the name of any domestic product, manufacturer, or dealer, or of any manufacturer or dealer located in any foreign country which, by treaty, convention or law affords similar privileges to citizens of the Philippines, or which shall copy or simulate a mark or trade-name registered in accordance with the provisions of this Act, or shall bear a mark or trade-name calculated to induce the public to believe that the article is manufactured in the Philippines, or that it is manufactured in any foreign country or locality other than the country or locality where it is in fact manufactured, shall be admitted to entry at any customhouse of the Philippines. In order to aid the officers of the customs service in enforcing this prohibition, any person who is entitled to the benefits of this Act, may require his name and residence, and the name of the locality in which his goods are manufactured, a copy of the certificate of registration of his mark or trade-name to be recorded in books which shall be kept for this purpose in the Bureau of Customs, under such regulations as the Collector of Customs with the approval of the Secretary of Finance shall prescribe, and may furnish to the said Bureau facsimiles of his name, the name of the locality in which his goods are manufactured, or of his registered mark or trade-name, and thereupon the Collector of Customs shall cause one or more copies of the same to be transmitted to each collector or other proper officer of the Bureau of Customs." In the light of the foregoing provisions of the law, it is the opinion of this Office that were the patentee fails to comply with the requirements imposed by the aforequoted law, That Office may still accept and approve applications for permits to import articles of the same brand as that of the patentee. However, where the patentee has complied with the requirements of the said law, that Office should not issue permits to import cigarettes having the same brand as the registered brand of the cigarettes manufactured by the patentee. cdti (SGD.) MISAEL P. VERA Commissioner of Internal Revenue