Yes, you read that right. Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines stole their Baybayin logo. As you may know, I’ve gone through own issues with theft from Philippine companies. For the record, I contacted the agency for help but never got a response. My buddy Norman de los Santos goes through this several times a year as well with his fonts. This one issue is special because the agency that’s supposed to be the protectors of Intellectual Property in the Philippines stole a concept presented to them during the pitch phase! Design veterans know what I’m talking about. You have your pitch presentation and the client seems to like it then all of a sudden they used your ideas in the product. Very shady shit. So around 2011, John Leyson, who at that time was running the design agency, Liquid and Liquid pitched a redesign of the logo.
As you can see there’s quite a difference from the cluttered original version. Below is John’s explanation of the logo and you’ll see that they even copied the description.
From IPO
This type of blatant behavior coming from the very top is disturbing. It sets a precedence for other companies who’ve already been stealing artwork. This is not fair use or taking inspiration. How can the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines enforce IP laws when they’ve broken it themselves and refused to acknowledge it? John Leyson and team have tried to resolve the issue directly with them but the arrogance of the agency forced this issue to be public. We’ve called them out on their FB page but they just delete the comments. Stay tuned….
Kristian Kabuay 
Leading by example. 😛
This is the epitome of the culture of piracy, plagiarism, dishonesty, disrespect, and dishonor prevalent in the Philippines. How can Filipino authors, artists, composers, inventors, businessmen, scientists, engineers, architects, craftsmen, and even indigenous peoples trust this system to protect their patents, trademarks, copyrights, and their cultural & intellectual properties?
Thanks to international copyright laws (Germany, UK, and USA), my Baybayin fonts have “some” guaranteed protection as my intellectual property. But sadly, I can never have that security and confidence in the very home country that my Baybayin fonts are intended to be used at. In the first place, IPOPHIL has no provisions and contingencies in place regarding protecting the copyrights of typeface & font design, as well as calligraphic art. In the second place, their “protection” track record is now moot.
We now know where we stand. When we stand alone, we must stand united as one. I have been fending off commercial license violators with the help of friends and the support of fellow artists like Kristian Kabuay here at baybayin.com. I guess we have to stay the course and hope for the best.
This IPOPHIL is just a sad situation. I do not know how IPOPHIL would ever be trustworthy.
The authority tasked to enforce IP laws is the same one violating them. How very ironic.