US-BASED drugmaker Alcon has won a trademark case against Indian rival
Ajanta Pharma, preventing the latter from selling its popular eyedrop
under the brand ‘Travaxo’ in India. The Bombay HC gave an injunction in
favour of Alcon and barred Ajanta from using ‘Travaxo’ on grounds of
trademark infringement. The medicine directly competes with Alcon’s
‘Travatan’ in the highly competitive Rs 33,000-crore drug retail
market.
Alcon, with over $4.4-billion global sales, manufactures and markets
‘Travatan’, an eyedrop meant for the treatment of glaucoma and has
worldwide registrations for the mark in several countries, including
India. “It is improper to use similar sounding names for medicines as
they can create confusion, ” said DSK Legal partner Mustafa Safiyuddin,
who represented Alcon.
Alcon argued Travaxo was similar to Travatan and moved HC to stop
Ajanta from selling the drug using the name Travaxo. It also alleged
that Ajanta had breached the Alcon copyright in its literary work in
‘product insert’. Ajanta in its defence said there was no similarity
between Travatan and Travaxo and the name of the medicine was derived
from the ingredient Travoprost.
When contacted, Ajanta officials declined to comment. Indian courts in
the recent past have ruled in favour of the original trademark holder.
The same court ruled in favour of Swiss major Roche’s drug Valcyte
against Cipla’s similar drug Valcept.
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