The Need for Balancing the Regulation of Pharmaceutical Trademarks Between the Food and Drug Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office

摘要

Through its creation of the Labeling and Nomenclature Committee (LNC) within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fulfills one of its more important obligations, namely the protection of the publicfrom confusingly similar names for drugs. Confusion between names for drugs has the potential for negative public health consequences, and FDA takes its responsibility in this area very seriously. This function has been viewed by many within the industry as clashing with the Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO's) authority to regulate the registration of all trademarks under the Lanham Act. In fact, both FDA and PTO have authority in this area, and some simple changes in their respective procedures could eliminate much of the confusion and misunderstanding generated by this joint authority.