Court order in 'Covishield' trademark lawsuit likely on Jan 30

A Pune court hearing a suit filedby a pharmaceutical firm over the brand name 'Covishield',used by the Serum Institute of India (SII) for its COVID-19vaccine, is likely to deliver its order in the case on January30.

Cutis-Biotech had filed the suit in the civil court onJanuary 4, seeking to restrain the SII from using thetrademark Covishield or any other similar names for itsCOVID-19 vaccine and claimed the pharma firm is a prioruser of the brand name.

On Tuesday, the SII had filed its response to thelawsuit, stating that both the firms operate in differentproduct categories and there is no scope for confusion overthe trademark.

Advocate S K Jain, representing the SII, said heargued in the court on Friday that Cutis-Biotech had filedanother application before trademark registry for a vaccine inthe name of Covishield in December 2020.

''However, SII applied for the trademark in June 2020.

Thus, SII becomes the prior and first user of the trademarkCovishield,'' said Jain, adding that he also presented somematerial which showed that the work of printing the materialhaving the name of Covishield had begun in March last yearitself.

''In such a scenario, SII becomes the first user of thetrademark,'' Jain said.

Jain said the case filed by the plaintiff should bedismissed as it had cheated the court by not revealing all theinformation related to the second application of December lastyear before the trademark registry for a vaccine under thename Covishield.

Advocate Aditya Soni, representing Cutis-Biotech,countered the SII lawyer's argument about product distinction,and said it was not necessary that the products should beidentical and it was sufficient if the goods are similar, hesaid.

Soni said he had cited some judgements to counter theSII's lawyer's point that the plaintiff firm did not revealthe details about their December 2020 application.

''It is irrelevant to attach the documents (related tothe application made by Cutis-Biotech to trademark registryfor a vaccine under the name Covishield) to the present case,''Soni said.

After hearing both the sides, Additional SessionsJudge A V Rotte kept the hearing on January 30 when the orderis expected to be delivered in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)