Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Labor advisory No. 01 series of 2023 – Food and Waterborne Disease Prevention and Control in the Workplace, dated January 16, 2023

For the prevention and control of cases of cholera, diarrhea, and other food and waterborne diseases, all establishments and workplaces in the private sector are ordered to follow this advisory, as follows:

• All employers should provide workers with free welfare facilities, particularly an adequate supply of safe drinking water and sanitary and washing facilities;
•  All establishments and workplaces engaged as drinking water service providers; bulk water suppliers; water refilling station operators; ice manufacturers; food establishments, commercial, industrial and institutional buildings that use/supply/serve drinking water; and other covered entities are advised to conform with the provisions of the Department of Health Administrative Order No. 2017-0012 and Chapter 2 of Presidential Decree No. 856 prescribing the standards and procedures on drinking water quality;
• All establishments where food and/or drinks are manufactured, processed, stored, sold or served for public consumption are advised to secure the necessary permits from the local health office and conform to the requirements pursuant to Chapter 3 of PD 856, and other food safety-related issuances;
• All employees should continue to implement their Occupational Safety and Health Program.

Workplace incidents of cholera, diarrhea, and other food and waterborne diseases should be reported by the safety officer to the Local Government Unit of their locality and to the Department of Health.

Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Memorandum Circular No. 2023-0001 – Rules and Regulations on Trademarks, Service Marks, Trade Names and Marked or Stamped Containers of 2023 Replacing the Revised Trademark Regulations of 2017, dated January 10, 2023, effective February 14, 2023

The Rules on Trademarks, Service Marks, Trade Names and Marked or stamped containers of 2017 have been replaced by this IPOPHL MC No. 2023-0001 which clearly provides for the acceptance of non-traditional marks of color marks, motion marks, position marks and holograms.

The following are the relevant changes introduced by this memorandum circular

1. Rule 101 – The new rules provide for new definitions as follows:
2. “Actual Use” – means use in the ordinary course of trade that demonstrates real commercial purpose targeting the public.
3. “Certification Mark” – means any sign, used or intended for use in commerce with the owner’s permission by someone other than its owner, to certify regional or other geographic origin, material, mode of manufacture, quality, accuracy, or other characteristics of someone’s goods or services, or that the work or labor on goods or services, or that the work or labor on goods or services was performed by members of a group or associations.

iii. “communication” – shall mean any response to an office action, petition, request, motion, or any submission in relation to maintenance requirement or document affecting title filed with the office, except compliance with filing date requirements.

1. “Mailing date” – means the date it was initially sent through the e-correspondence system or sent to the designated registered e-mail if the applicant/registrant or its agent as the case may be. In case an office action or issuance has been received both through e-correspondence and e-mail, the reckoning date will be the later date of receipt.
2. Translation- means the equivalent meaning of a word in one language in another language such as expressing a French into English
3. Transliteration – means converting of the words, letters or characters from one language to the corresponding words, letters or characters of another language or alphabet by means of their close similarity in sound like expressing Chinese characters into the Roman or Latin alphabet. 
4. Rule 203 – the requirements for applications claiming priority rights have been amended listing down acceptable representations of non-traditional marks, particularly drawings that depict a series of movements and holograms.
5. Rule 206- Regarding the renewal of Declaration of Actual Use (DAU) – The previous regulations only mentioned that registered marks due for renewal on January 01, 2017 are required to file a DAU  for the purpose of registration maintenance. Now the regulations specifically states that the renewal of DAU may be filed within the 6 month-period  before the expiration of the registration.
6. Rule 210 – The accepted evidence of Actual Use of the mark has been amended as follows:

1. Rule 400.2- A new rule on collective marks and certification marks have been added. It states that application for registration of a collective mark or certification mark shall designate the mark as such and shall be accompanied by a copy of the agreement, if any, governing the use of the collective mark or the copy of the standards set by the certifier governing the use of the certification mark, as the case may be.
2. Rule 402- the guidelines on the reproduction of the mark upon filing of the application has also been amended. Most importantly is the inclusion of rules on color marks, position marks, motion marks, holograms and 3D marks.
3. Rule 503- new provisions on the mode of filing and transmitting office communications has been added to formally implement filing and service by electronic mail or online. Now, the same must be submitted only through the online submission system, i.e. eTMFile, of the IPOPHL. Other communications to the IPOPHL can be submitted online using the IPOPHL online submission system, i.e., eDocFile.
4. Rule 601 – In addition to the instances given priority of action by the IPOPHL, now, applications for marks used or to be used on goods or services directly related to preparing or responding to pandemics, or to addressing public health emergencies, including pharmaceutical preparations or vaccines; personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, face shields, gloves and laboratory gowns; medical and laboratory apparatus and equipment; sanitizers and disinfectants; scientific and laboratory services; and medical services.
5. Other rules, such as those on disclaimers (Rule 604) and contents of certificate of registration (Rule 803) have been amended to include rules on 3D marks, position marks and color marks.
6. Procedural rules have also been amended. For more details, please refer to the Trademark Regulations of 2023

 (see: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kfczZkVpKiWuFiRSgG5OIlAKvYvRXsB9/view).