Republic
of
the Philippines
Supreme
Court
Manila
A.M. N0.
03-03-03-SC
[JULY 01,
2003]
RE:
CONSOLIDATION
OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY COURTS WITH COMMERCIAL COURTS
R E S O
L U T
I O N
WHEREAS, to implement
the provisions of Section 5.2 of Republic Act No. 8799 (The Securities
Regulation Code), and in the interest of a speedy and efficient
administration
of justice, the Supreme Court en bane, in the (a) Resolution dated 21
November
2000 (Annex 1), 4 July 2001 (Annex 1-a), 12 November 2002 (Annex 1-b),
and 9 July 2002 (Annex 1-c), all issued in A.M. No. 00-11-03-SC; (b)
Resolution
dated 27 August 2001 in A.M. No. 01-5-298 RTC (Annex 2); and (c)
Resolution
dated 8 July 2002 in A.M. No. 01-12-656-RTC (Annex 3), resolved to
designate
certain branches of the Regional Trial Courts to try and decide cases
formerly
cognizable by the Securities and Exchange Commission;
WHEREAS, pursuant
to the same Resolution, sixty-five (65) Regional Trial Courts,
distributed
in all regions (NCJR and Regions 1-12), were designated as SEC courts
("SEC
Courts"), which courts have presently a total of 812 pending SEC cases
(see Annex 6, Table);chan
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virtual law library
WHEREAS, in A.O No.
113-95, dated 2 October 1995, as amended by A.O. No. 104-96, dated 21
October
1996, the Regional Trial Courts in the National Capital Region and
Regions
3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, with twenty-seven (27) judges, were specially
designated to try and decide cases for violations of Intellectual
Property
Rights (Annex 4), and to ensure the speedy disposition of cases
involving
violations of intellectual property rights under the Intellectual
Property
Code (Rep. Act No. 8293), the Supreme Court en bane, in A.M. No.
02-1-11-
SC, dated February 19, 2002, designated the Regional Trial Courts in
Regions
1, 2, 5, 8 and 12, with a total of seven (7) judges, and Branch 24 of
the
Regional Trial Court of Manila with one (1) judge, as Special
Intellectual
Property Courts ("Special IP Courts") (Annex 5)
WHEREAS, pursuant
to A.M. No. 02-1-11 SC and A.O. No. 113-95, these Special IP Courts
have
a total caseload of 503 cases. Of this number 434 IP cases are pending
in the NCJR (Annex 6, Table);chan
robles virtual law library
WHEREAS, since the
establishment of Special IP Courts (except for the Special IP Courts in
Manila), 15 designated courts, in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and
12 have zero (0) IP cases, and do not warrant their continued
designations
as Intellectual Property Courts (Annex 7, Table);chan
robles virtual law library
WHEREAS, intellectual
property cases are commercial in nature;
WHEREAS, to streamline
the court structure and to promote expediency and efficiency in
handling
such special cases, the jurisdiction to hear and decide IPC and SEC
cases
are best consolidated in one court;
NOW, THEREFORE, the
Court Resolves:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
1. The Regional Courts
previously designated as SEC Courts through the: (a) Resolutions of
this
Court dated 21 November 2000, 4 July 2001, 12 November 2002, and 9 July
2002, all issued in A.M. No. 00-11-03-SC, (b) Resolution
dated
27 August 2001 in A.M. No. 01-5-298-RTC; and (c) Resolution dated 8
July
2002 in A.M. No. 01-12-656-RTC are hereby DESIGNATED and shall be
CALLED
as Special Commercial Courts to try and decide cases involving
violations
of Intellectual Property Rights which fall within their jurisdiction
and
those cases formerly cognizable by the Securities and Exchange
Commission;chan
robles virtual law library
2. The designation
of Intellectual Property Courts under Administrative Order No.
113-95
dated 2 October 1995, as amended by Administrative Order No. 104-96
dated
21 October 1996 and Resolution dated 19 February 2002 in A.M. No.
02-1-11-SC,
is hereby revoked. However, the Regional Trial Court, Branch 24, Manila
is hereby designated as an additional Special Commercial Court in the
City
of Manila;
3. Upon the effectivity
of this Resolution, all IP cases shall be transferred to the designated
Special Commercial Courts except those which have undergone the
pretrial
stage in civil cases or those where any of the accused has been
arraigned
in criminal cases which shall be retained by the court previously
assigned
to try them;
4. The Special Commercial
Courts shall have jurisdiction over cases arising within their
respective
territorial jurisdiction with respect to the National Capital Judicial
Region and within the respective provinces with respect to the First to
Twelfth Judicial Regions. Thus, cases shall be filed in the
Office of the Clerk of Court in the official station of the designated
Special Commercial Court;chan
robles virtual law library
5. In the event of
inhibition of the judge of a designated Special Commercial Court, the
following
guidelines shall be observed: (a) where there is only one (1) Special
Commercial
Court, the case shall be raffled among the other judges in the station;
(b) where there are two (2) Special Commercial Courts in the station,
the
Executive Judge shall immediately assign the case to the other Special
Commercial Court; and (c) in case of inhibition of both judges of the
Special
Commercial Courts, the Executive Judge shall raffle the case among the
judges in the station; and
6. In order to ensure
a just and equitable distribution of cases, the designated Special
Commercial
Courts shall continue to participate in the raffles of other cases.
Provided,
however, that the Executive Judge concerned shall adopt a procedure
whereby
every IP and SEC case assigned to a Special Commercial Court should be
considered a case raffled to it and duly credited to such court.chan
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This Resolution shall
take effect on 1 July 2003 and shall be published in two (2) newspapers
of general circulation.
17 June 2003chan
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Davide,
Jr. C.J.,
Bellosillo, Puno, Vitug, Panganiban, Quisumbing, Ynares-Santiago,
Sandoval-Gutirrez,
Carpio, Corona, Callejo Sr., Carpio-Morales, Azcuna and Tinga, JJ.
Austria-Martinez,
J. on leave
chan
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