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By Likha C. Cuevas-Miel, Reporter
Ayala Land, Inc. has denied it copied a system
of building modular homes for mass housing projects patented by a
local construction firm after the court found its unit, Avida Land
Corp., guilty of patent infringement.
In a statement, lawyer Rafael E. Khan, legal
counsel of Avida Land, said the company has “actively defended”
itself against the infringement claim and maintained it did not copy
any patent held by Edgardo Vazquez and his company, Vazquez Building
Systems, Inc.
Khan said Avida uses the patented technology
licensed to it by two foreign firms, the UK-based Tex Holdings PLCm,
which offered a technology covered by Philippine Patent 30327 issued
on 25 March 1997, and the French company Maison Individuelles SA,
which offered its “Phenix” system covered by Philippine Patent
No. 29862 issued on 26 August 1996.
He said the two systems, which are also patented
abroad, involve building processes and end products that are
different from the housing unit described in Vazquez’s patent.
Based on court documents, the modular houses patented by Vazquez in
1990 had two columns with H-shaped sections and additional pairs of
opposed side grooves to hold wall panels
Avida and its legal counsel have not received
their copy of the Quezon City regional trial court’s decision and
cannot comment on its contents and merits just yet.
“If Avida confirms that the court’s decision
is adverse, [the company] intends to pursue all available appellate
remedies to protect its rights and interests,” Khan said.
On December 18, RTC Judge Reynaldo Daway ordered
Avida to pay almost P140 million to Vazquez broken down into P90
million for “temperate” damages, P5 million for moral damages,
P1 million for exemplary damages and P500,000 for attorney’s fees
and litigation expenses.
From 1992 to 1997, Vazquez bagged
P886.38-million worth of contracts with the Ayala Group to build
modular homes in the developer’s Laguna and Batangas projects
under Laguna Properties Holdings, Inc.
Documents showed that Vazquez discovered in July
1997 that Laguna Properties had copied his invention for additional
housing projects in Sta. Isabel Village in Tayabas, Quezon, and in
San Francisco Village in Naga City. It turned out, too, that the
real-estate firm also used the modular houses in its housing
projects in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, Trece Martirez City and Cebu City.
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