An Ilonggo beats a French billionaire

By Herbert Vego

THIS is the case of an Ilonggo entrepreneur besting a French billionaire.

Readers of this column will remember that I once wrote about a legal battle pitting our fellow Ilonggo and a French fashion magnate.

If you are not old enough to remember Victor Martin J. Soriano, he was that young Ilonggo who gained national fame by swimming the Iloilo-Guimaras Strait continuously – a distance of 4.2 nautical miles (7.7 kilometers) on August 7, 1994.

The better news about the now older Martin is that has “subdued” Bernard Arnault, the French chairman and chief executive officer of the world-famous fashion firm Louis Vuitton Malletier. With a real-time asset of US $149.5 billion today, Arnault is listed in Forbes magazine as the second richest man in the world, next to Elon Musk.

To know what I mean, let me review the first time I wrote of the Soriano-Arnault tussle,  which sprang from a complaint filed by Arnault’s Filipino lawyers at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in Taguig City, accusing him of counterfeiting Louis Vuitton products.

Arnault accused Soriano of using the “LV” brand for the latter’s local deodorant products made from potassium alum (“tawas”).

Arnault’s “LV” is the shorter form of “Louis Vuitton,” a French brand of luggage and other leather goods, ready-to-wear shirts, shoes, watches, jewelry, eye glasses and fragrances.

You and I are familiar with how the letters “L” and “V” overlap each other in the French brand.

On the other hand, Soriano’s “LV” differs from that of the complainant’s “LV”; the two letters indicative of brush strokes do not overlap.

Unlike Arnault’s which refers to the world-famous “Louis Vuitton,” Soriano’s stands for “Lopez Vito,” which is the surname of his cousins in Portugal, where his tawas deodorant is also widely sold.

In this corner in June 2021, I quoted my friend Martin Soriano, “Don’t I have the right to use the same initials? I have no doubt I will beat Arnault.”

He was confident about it because of a precedent that had gone all the way to the Supreme Court (SC). In its decision, the SC ruled that the Philippine-based Kolin Electronics could not be questioned for using the name “Kolin” on its products — namely television, refrigerators, air conditioners, electric fans and water dispensers – even if the “Kolin” brand is also used by a Taiwan manufacturer of voltage regulator, converter, recharger and stereo booster.

The other day, Soriano e-mailed me the IPO decision junking Arnault’s complaint. In her decision upholding Soriano’s right to use the letters “LV”, IPO adjudication officer Antoinette Valerie Y. Yap Duque stressed that the likelihood of purchasers getting deceived by respondent’s products would be minimal, if not completely nonexistent.

Case dismissed.

-oOo-

WALKING THROUGH PLAZA LIBERTAD

PLAZA LIBERTAD in Iloilo City has regained its reputation as one of the most attractive tourism sites in Iloilo City with the completion of its renovation at a reasonable cost of P19 million. It includes placement of benches for tourists and weary strollers to relax, trimming of trees, landscaping, and ground pavement.

The nights thereat brighten up with the lights installed by MORE Electric and Power Corporation.

Congratulations to Mayor Jerry P. Treñas for spearheading the project.

Plaza Libertad is known in Philippine history as the former Plaza Alfonso, where Spanish soldiers surrendered to Gen. Martin Delgado on December 25, 1898.

The restoration of the plaza is one of the provisions in the law authored by Treñas during his incumbency as congressman. It is known as Republic Act 10555 or “An Act Declaring the Jaro Cathedral, Molo Church, the Iloilo City Central Business District, Fort San Pedro, Jaro Plaza Complex, Molo Plaza Complex and Plaza Libertad Complex, all Located in the City of Iloilo, as Cultural Heritage Tourism Zone.”