CASE DIGEST: Samson vs. Tarroza

28 SCRA 792 (1969)

FACTS:

This is an appeal from a decision of the Director of Patents denying the petition for the cancellation of Utility Model Letters Patent No. 62 in favor of respondent Felipe Tarroza for his Side Tilting-Dumping Wheelbarrow.

Petitioner Gerardo Samson, Jr was also a prior grantee of Utility Model Patent No. 27 for a Dumping and Detachable Wheelbarrow, which he claims to have been infringed by the respondent, they being neighbors.

ISSUE:

Whether or not respondent’s Utility Model Patent deserves cancellation.

HELD:

No. There is an express recognition under the Patent Law that any new model of implements or tools or of any industrial product even if not possessed of the quality of invention but which is of “practical utility” is entitled to a “patent for a utility model: From the description of the side of tilting-dumping wheelbarrow, the product of ingenuity and industry, it is quite apparent that it has a place in the market and possesses what the statute refers to as “practical utility.”