Sreya Kanugula
After a suit was filed to restraint the Serum Institute of India from trademarking ‘COVISHIELD,’ an alternative being ‘COVID SHIELD’ or any other relatively identical name to the latter two; AV Rotte, the Additional Sessions judge of a civil court in Pune issued a notice to the Institue on the very same.
A Nanded-based pharmaceutical corporation known as ‘Cutis Biotech’ filed the suit, on the standing that they were the “lawful and prior user” of the vaccine tradename in question. They claim to have filed for registration of trademarking it on April 29, 2020.
The official plaint says that the Serum Institute of India made their application for the tradename only in June of 2020. And on the 11th of July, the Registrar of Trademarks noted that the defendant has not taken measures to stop the usage of the trademark, even after gaining information on the plaintiff’s registration for ownership of the mark.
The plaint includes a Telangana businessman by the name of Mr. Bandaru Srinivas, who is also attempting to use the tradename.
The plaintiff has also filed a similar case upon SII in Nanded, on the 11th of December in 2020. This case’s hearing is currently pending.
SII’s advocate Aditya Ashok Soni explained that an injunction suit was filed against SII primarily because, Cutis Biotech has been producing various products with the trademark in question, from May 2020.
But due to the confusion caused by SII’s claim to the same name for the vaccine, Biotech’s suppliers have begun to pull back.
This is another reason why the injunction has been filed and reparations are being sought by the plaintiff on any profit made under SII’s COVID19 vaccine.