Q&A | Editha R. Hechanova | Intellectual Property

[music] >> I am Aditha Achernova. I’m the president of the Achernova and Company Inc. and managing partner of the law law office of Achernova Bugay Vilches and Andaya Racadio. So, we brand ourselves as Achernova Group. I have these two companies. When I set up the first company, the IP consulting firm, we wanted to have some kind of a career path for technical people who cannot be partners in a law firm.

That’s still under Philippine law. So, that’s why I have the IP consulting firm, which is a corporation, and a law office, which is a partnership. >> [music] >> For the IP consulting firm Achernova and Company, it’s totally 100% IP. So, we do prosecution work.

all kinds of searches, IP consulting from creation of the IP to commercialization. We do IP valuation. I’m a certified valuation analyst, but the AMV is a European association. And for the law firm, we do the contentious aspects. So, this would mean border control, IP litigation, all contentious matters, enforcement.

but I am an accredited mediator and arbitrator also for intellectual property. For the IP prosecution company, so we have international clients. So, in almost all country, even with the new newly developed or recognized country, Timor Leste, and also local domestic clients.

So, we are now it’s still a lot of international clients, but we’re trying to develop more local clients because of the push for innovation. So, we have this engagement with the Department of Science and Technology, where we do patent drafting, IP audit, etc. On the contentious side, we are very active in enforcement. So, we do raids, border control, and of course litigation. So, it can be well, we can defend or represent both plaintiffs and defendants for so long as we have no conflict of interest.

We have two landmark cases. The other first the first one is that case of Sunica Sunica versus another pharmaceutical company where the where the two cases were disregarded or reversed by the Supreme Court and where the dominancy element for trademark registration was recognized. This means that the first to file first to file system was emphasized by the Supreme Court. And that one reversed the the long practiced principle of recognition by use.

So, that was the Sunica case. And the other one is it’s still pending, but this one is we represented Crocodile International against Lacoste. We were our trademark Crocodile was declared a well-known mark. At the same time and a long time ago, Lacoste was declared a well-known mark, but the issue here was that they had a coexisting agreement in several countries.

So, that means to say that those issues should be honored. That’s why we won this case and no infringement, no cancellation, or opposition should be for the Crocodile mark of that one Crocodile International.

It’s more for recognition purposes of our work. And of course, I’m not the only one. I have all those people assisting me. So, by recognizing probably me and our firm, that includes them. So, we how how do you call it?

we set some kind of bar for other practitioners. >> [music]