Balancing Public Health and Intellectual Property RightsThe Impact of the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation on Trademarks in the Weight loss Industry

摘要

This article aims at understanding the impact of the enactment of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR) by the European Parliament and European Commission. The Regulation imposed a series of conditions on food manufacturers in order for certain health and nutrition claims to be associated with the foods, such as "low sodium" or "Vitamin C boost the immune system." This article addresses the issue of interpretation through an analysis of the relevant Court of Justice of the European Union(CJEU) case law along with other interpretative tools. Particularly, this article is novel for two reasons: first, as it applies the interpretations from the CJEU Case law to 'WeightWatchers' and 'SlimFast' and particularly, attempts to discern what willbe of these health claim related trademarks. Second, as it looks to possible solutions through the CJEU as well as World Trade Organization treaties such as TRIPs and the TBT.