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It’s beyond ironic.
In a post on Baybayin.com, Kristian Kabuay accused the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPO or IPOHL) of committing intellectual property theft by allegedly stealing a logo that had been presented to them in a past pitch. Kabuay indicated that he had contacted the IPO about the matter, but that he didn’t get a response.
“This one issue is special because the agency that’s supposed to be the protectors of Intellectual Property in the Philippines stole a concept presented to them during the pitch phase! Design veterans know what I’m talking about. You have your pitch presentation and the client seems to like it then all of a sudden they used your ideas in the product. Very shady shit,” wrote Kabuay in a Sep 22 post on Baybayin.com.
He then related, “So around 2011, John Leyson, who at that time was running the design agency, Liquid and Liquid pitched a redesign of the logo.”
Kabuay then showed the “evolution” of the IPO logo in a chart (see above). He also included what appeared to be material from Leyson’s 2011 pitch (see below).
Kabuay pointed out: “As you can see there’s quite a difference from the cluttered original version. Below is John’s explanation of the logo and you’ll see that they even copied the description (see below).”
He went on to explain, “This type of blatant behavior coming from the very top is disturbing. It sets a precedence for other companies who’ve already been stealing artwork. This is not fair use or taking inspiration. How can the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines enforce IP laws when they’ve broken it themselves and refused to acknowledge it? John Leyson and team have tried to resolve the issue directly with them but the arrogance of the agency forced this issue to be public. We’ve called them out on their FB page but they just delete the comments.”
For its part, the IPOPHL posted their statement about the matter on their website. We are reposting the statement below (undedited):
POPHL statement on its logo
- This statement is in reaction to the article posted on September 22, 2015 by one Kristian Kabuay entitled “Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines steals Baybayin logo”, in the website baybayin.com and other similar posts and blog comments.
- The IPOPHL logo was designed by the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP) in consultation with IPOPHL officials sometime in August 2011 pursuant to a Memorandum Of Understanding dated July 2011.
- The concepts of creativity, innovation, colors, and various facets of IP, served as guidance for the logo design.
- The IPOPHL logo was launched in October 2011 and has been in continuous use to date.
- The issue on the logo came to the attention of the IPOPHL only on May 25, 2015 or after almost 4 years from its launching, when Baybayin Buhayin, Taklobo Baybayin, Inc. and John Nicolas Lacap Leyson (herein called Baybayin Group) through its counsel sent a demand letter, demanding, among others, for compensation for the design, concept and use of the logo.
- It must be stressed that IPOPHL has never met nor transacted with any of the officers or members of the Baybayin Group from conceptualization until finalization of the logo.
- Contrary to the allegation that the Baybayin Group was ignored by IPOPHL officials, meetings with the Group were called on four separate occasions (June 8 and 24, July 14, and August 3, 2015) to clarify their claims and address their concerns. However, when asked how the issue could be resolved, the Baybayin Group, in one of the meetings, reiterated their demand that they be compensated and quoted the amount of PhP 500,000, which IPOPHL declined outright, considering that the same had no factual and legal basis.
- Baybayin characters are commonly used as in the logos of several government agencies such as the National Museum, National Library, NCCA, AFP and others.
- Baybayin is an ancient script, and no one has the exclusive right to use it.
Photo: Baybayin.com
