Opinion

Today, we’re going to discuss Trademarks and / or Wordmarks. I went to the Philippine Intellectual Property Rights Office (IPOPhl) website to search for trademarks or wordmarks that include the terms “anime“, “otaku“, and yes, “cosplay“. First and foremost, why we are talking about these kinds of stuff? Patents, wordmarks and / or trademarks are such that can be considered as household names, but it’s not just one thing that you slap on the IPO in an easy way — filing these things take a lot of time, cash, blood in the nose (since everything you’ll have to file shall be in legalese, with an overdose of walls of text) and sweat (because they need you to come to their office to file for a claim), but you can file one online. It also has classifications with a nice name, which is the Nice Classification. Most trademarks last for a decade upon registration. ...

Days ago, Cosplay.ph announced the creation of their Cosplay Ranking System, in which the participants in Cosplay.ph-organized masquerades will be ranked according to their skill and experience. In this post, Deremoe will observe the developments in regards to this new system that is said to be based on international guidelines from its announcement to its formal launch and implementation at the 6th Philippine Cosplay Convention this March at Robinsons Place Manila. ...

(Originally published at Deremoe on January 28, 2013.) I was doing my work when this happened — two guys in plain white shirts wrecked a stall inside The SM (Department) Store at the building B of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong. What gives? Otaku Expo is ongoing at the Megatrade Hall 1, as previously covered by yours truly. What’s the relation of the incident to the event? It happened on the same day — and everyone was all locked up in their respective places for safety — shutters were pulled down, and nobody was allowed to get out of the place. Panic ensues. ...