Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners has successfully represented Antiviral, a Russian pharmaceutical manufacturer, whose products include Antigrippin-Maximum and Antigrippin-ANVI, in a dispute with Natur Produkt International, in regards to the Intellectual Property rights of Antigrippin trademarks.
The Russian Federal Antitrust Service initiated an investigation of unfair competition under the application of Antiviral, a company of Protek Group, one of the Russia’s largest pharmaceutical companies. The application asserted that the Antigrippin trademark had been used in the market long before it was officially registered by Natur Produkt International.
On November 7, 2011, the Russian Federal Antitrust Service held Natur Produkt International to have used unfair business practices under Article 14.2 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The antitrust authority found that Antigrippin may not be monopolised by any company in the branding of its products, because medicines generally branded as Antigrippin have been produced by pharmacies, sold to consumers and known in the pharmaceutical industry since the 1970s.
The client was represented by the Competition Law Practice Team of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, including Natalia Korosteleva, Partner and Head of Practice, Evgeny Bolshakov, Senior Associate, and Oxana Akhmedova, Associate.
“Irrespective of the recent decision made by the Chamber for Patent Disputes (Russian Patent Office) to keep in force the legal protection of one of Natur Produkt International’s trademarks, we have to say that Antiviral may file with the Russian Patent Office the Federal Antitrust Service’s decision against Natur Produkt International to invalidate the legal protection of trademarks that contain Antigrippin in order to finalise the decision on not permitting the usage of the disputed brand”, commented Natalia Korosteleva, Partner, Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners.
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