Trade Dress Compared In Pharma Trademark Dispute.

In a recent case, the Delhi High Court granted ad interim stay in favour of Glaxo Group Ltd & Anr (Plaintiff), thereby refraining Sunlife Sciences Pvt Ltd (Defendants) from manufacturing, selling and trading pharmaceutical preparations under the mark in question and also from using deceptively similar trade dress to that of Glaxo's during the pendency of the suit.

Glaxo Group is a well-known pharmaceutical company which has been selling pharmaceutical formulations under the marks BETNOVATE and BETNOVATE-C, CROCIN and ZINETAC/ZANTAC . They alleged that Sunlife Sciences were using the brand names B-NATE-C, CORSUN and ZEETAK which were deceptively similar to the marks used by Glaxo, not only in terms of the color scheme, get up and layout but also phonetically, to the extent of not only violating Glaxo's statutory rights but also causing confusion in the minds of the public by selling deceptively similar products.