Chile Supreme Court Blocks Drug Trademark Over Similarity

摘要

Chile's Supreme Court blocked the registration of a trademark for an antibiotic, taking a hard line on name that sound too much like one for existing drug. The brand name Cefurox looks and sounds too similar to the Cefirax trademark registered by Chilean pharma-ceuticals producer Laboratorios Saval SA and could lead to confusion among the relevant consumers, the court ruled July 27. In other cases, authorities have permitted the registration of pharmaceutical trademarks with only minor differences with existing brands, arguing that because the products are only sold by prescription, it eliminates the possibility of errors and confusion by consumers, intellectual property lawyer Francisco Silva told Bloomberg BNA in an email.