HC dismisses Sun Pharma Lab’s plea in trademark case

A bench headed by Justice Amit Mahajan said, “Surya cannot be allowed to monopolize INN ‘Letrozole’ in the present case. The mark, ‘Letroz’, is not the same as the trademark ‘Letro’, as both the parties INN adopts the initials of ‘Letrozole’ (Sun adopted the first six and Hetero adopted the first three).

Essentially, International Non-Proprietary Names (INN) facilitate the identification of pharmaceutical substances or active pharmaceutical ingredients. Each INN is a unique name that is recognized globally and is public property.

Earlier, Sun filed a lawsuit before a commercial court, alleging infringement of its ‘Letroz’ trademark and ordering a permanent injunction preventing Hetero from using the trademark ‘Letro’ for the drug. was demanded to be given.

The commercial court, however, had rejected it in April this year.

In its petition, Sun has claimed to be one of the top generic pharmaceutical companies in the world. It said it secured registration of the trademark ‘Letroz’ under Class 5 in October 2010.

Sun further claimed that because of the trademark registration, it has the statutory right to use ‘letrose’ exclusively and is entitled to prevent Hetero from using its trademark.

According to Sun, sales have increased due to the excellent quality and high performance of the product. 8.34 crore in 2016-17 financial year. Additionally, it said that it spent a significant amount of money promoting Letrose.

Prices for Sun’s and Hetero products vary greatly. sun charge 187.80 for its product, while the price of Hetero is 60, the High Court took cognizance of the fact that the packaging and color scheme of both the products were not identical.

Hetero argued that it is common practice in the pharmaceutical industry to use a trademark derived from an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).

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