Jollibee issues clarification

We are writing to clarify facts and correct any misperceptions that may have been created by the article entitled “Goldilocks stops Chowking” written by Victor C. Agustin and published July 15 in The article incorrectly states, among other things, that: (1) Goldilocks has managed to stop Chowking from serving its own version of Chinese-style ‘orange chicken’ dish.

(2) Chowking has lost in its attempt to trademark its CHOWKING NEW ORANGE CHICKEN and its variant CHOWKING ORANGE CHICKEN WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS AND DEVICE offering after the local trademark office purportedly ruled that Goldilocks had already secured the copyright to the “Goldilocks chicken orange” name and mark as early as 2010

(3) Chowking was allegedly beaten to the draw by Goldilocks’ earlier filing of [Goldilocks’] trademark application.

We wish to make clear that Chowking has not been stopped, by Goldilocks or any other entity for that matter, from selling its own version of “orange chicken” dishes. Moreover, Chowking’s trademark applications for CHOWKING NEW ORANGE CHICKEN and CHOWKING ORANGE CHICKEN WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS AND DEVICE are both active, and Chowking retains its rights to these marks. What the Intellectual Property Office merely ruled (in the trademark opposition decisions involving these marks)was that the element “orange chicken” is “generic or descriptive” and cannot be exclusively appropriated by anyone entity and so must be disclaimed by Chowking from its applications. Goldilocks itself has recognized that it has no exclusive right to use the term “orange chicken” by disclaiming the element “orange chicken” from its own trademark application for “Goldilocks Orange Chicken”. A disclaimer, under trademark law and practice, does not affect a trademark owner’s rights to the mark, as whole. In other words, a trademark owner can still continue using its mark containing the disclaimed element but it cannot prevent other establishments from using the disclaimed element to describe goods of the same nature. Hence, no one may stop - and, in fairness to Goldilocks, they have not stopped – Chowking from using the CHOWKING NEW ORANGE CHICKEN and CHOWKING ORANGE CHICKEN WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS AND DEVICE trademarks, or from selling “orange chicken” dishes.

We also wish to make note that Chowking’s trademark applications predate those of Goldilocks’. Chowking’s trademark applications for CHOWKING NEW ORANGE CHICKEN and CHOWKING ORANGE CHICKEN WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS AND DEVICE were both filed on April 26, 2010, months earlier than Goldilocks’ trademark application for “Goldilocks Orange Chicken”, which was filed only on July 22, 2010, and earlier than the alleged copyright registration for “Goldilocks Orange Chicken” which was purportedly registered only on Aug. 4, 2010.

We trust that the foregoing is informative. Please feel free to contact us, should you have further questions. Sincerely yours, Rosa C. Guerrero Jollibee Foods Corporation Corporate Communications Manager