Notice served to serum institute against use of name 'Covishield' About serum institute of India

• As per the reports of 2020, Serum institute is the world's largest vaccine producer by number of doses produced, producing around 1.5 billion doses of vaccines each year.
• The products which they have developed include TB vaccine Tubervac (BCG), Poliovac for poliomyelitis, and other vaccines for the childhood vaccination schedule.
• The company has tied up with pharma firm AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine for nCovid-19 in partnership with Oxford University.
• Serum institute had announced that they would provide 100 million doses of the vaccine in India and other low and middle-income countries.

TRADEMARK CLAIMS ON COVI SHIELD

• The case was filed in civil court by a Nanded-based pharmaceutical company "Cutis Biotech".
• Cutis Biotech claim to be the lawful and first user of the trade-name "COVI SHIELD". They claim that they’ve filed an application for registration of "COVI SHIELD" trademark in its name on April 29, 2020.
• The plaintiff also stated that the Serum Institute made application for the tradenames "COVI SHIELD" and "COVID SHIELD" in June. Moreover, Registrar of trademark raised objection regarding the same after pointing out that Cutis Biotech had already applied for the same name.

THE CASE AND THE JUDGMENT

• Notice has been issued to Serum Institute by the Additional District Court at Nanded. The court has scheduled next hearing on December 18.
• The plaintiff claim that they’ve placed different order before manufacturers for the medical purpose under the name of COVI SHIELD but they’ve refused because of SII using the same name.
• According to Cutis, SII using COVI SHIELD has caused harm to the goodwill of the firm and it is causing confusions among manufacturers and public.
• The plaintiff also filed a case against Telangana based businessman for trying and using the trademarked name.

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