PHILIPPINES Law and Practice Contributed by: Susan D. Villanueva, Patricia A. O. Bunye, Rowanie A. Nakan and Ritz Angelica R. Alejandro, Cruz Marcelo & Tenefrancia
ten interrogatories to be answered by the party served. A party not served with writ- ten interrogatories may not be compelled by the adverse party to give testimony in open court, or to give a deposition pending appeal, unless thereafter allowed by the court for good cause shown and to prevent failure of justice. • Request for Admission: A party may file and serve upon any other party a written request for admission by the latter of the genuine- ness of any material or relevant document described in and exhibited with the request, or of the truth of any material and relevant matter of fact set forth in the request. • Production or Inspection of Documents or Things: Upon motion showing good cause, the court may order any party to produce and permit the inspection and copying or photographing of any designated documents, objects or tangible things that are not privi- leged, which constitute or contain evidence material to any matter involved in the action in his or her possession. For administrative complaints filed before the BLA, any party may, by leave of the Hearing Officer, take the testimony of any person by deposition upon written interrogatories. 2.11 Initial Pleading Standards In IP cases before the courts, the complaint must: • be verified and accompanied by a certificate of non-forum shopping; • contain the full names of the parties and shall aver facts showing the capacity of a party to sue or be sued, or the authority of a party to sue or be sued in a representative capacity; • state the names of witnesses who will be presented to prove its claim;
• state the summary of the witnesses’ intended testimonies; and • contain the documentary and object evidence in support of the allegations contained in the pleadings, among others. Supplemental pleadings may be permitted upon motion, upon reasonable notice and upon such terms as are just but must only set forth the transactions or events that transpired since the filing of the complaint. For cases filed before the BLA, the complaint or petition must: • be verified and accompanied by a certificate of non-forum shopping; • contain the name and addresses of the petitioner and the other parties, including the respondent; • contain the registration number, the name of the registrant, and the date of registration of the IP sought to be cancelled (for cancellation cases); and • contain the ultimate facts constituting the petitioner’s causes of actions and the relief sought. For infringement cases filed before the BLA, the complaint must be filed within four years from the date of commission of the violation. 2.12 Representative or Collective Action While the IP Code does not give specific refer- ence to collective actions such as class suits, the Rules of Court, which apply suppletorily to IP rights proceedings, explicitly allow such. In such cases, the subject of the controversy must be of common or general interest to a large group of people, and the number of parties must be so extensive that it would be impracticable to bring them all before the court. A representa-
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