Text of the provision
Art. 522. Trade-marks and trade-names are governed by special laws.
(n)
Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.
What this article means
States that trade-marks and trade-names are not governed by the Civil Code but by separate legislation. The article is a pointer: it tells you this Code is not where the answer lives.
This article performs the same function as the one immediately before it on registered marks, only in broader terms: it covers trade-marks and trade-names generally, registered or not, and again defers the entire subject to special legislation. Read together, the two provisions mean the Civil Code supplies no independent rules on how marks and names are acquired, protected, or enforced — it simply acknowledges their status as property and directs anyone seeking the operative rules to look outside the Code entirely.
Questions about this provision
- Does the Civil Code itself govern trade-marks and trade-names, or are they controlled by a separate law?
- Is a trade-mark owned by the person who registered it even before they start using it commercially?
Related provisions
- Article 501 — Co-owner's Warranty After Partition.
- Article 551 — Improvements From Nature or Time.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.