Protection of trademark property rights in pharmaceuticals. Analysis of judicial practice

Abstract

Keywords: trademarks in the pharmaceutical industry, trademarks ownershipviolations, trademarks protection, case law, trademarks protection cases, invalidationof the trade mark certificate, early termination of the certificate
 The relevance of this article is that the largest number of legal disputes in the sphere of intellectual property are disputes concerning violation of property rights for trademarks. At the same time, in economicproceedings, part of the court cases on the protection of trademark rights in the pharmaceutical industry represents about 40% of the total number of court cases on the protection of rights to trademarks. The article studies theoretical provisions of protection of trademark rights in the field of pharmaceuticals, as well as practical issues of violations of these rights. Special attention is paid to the analysis of court practice of protection of trademark rights in the field of pharmaceuticals. It has been found that the overwhelming number of cases investigated concerns recognition of the Ukrainian trademark certificateas invalid. The analysis of judicial practice made it possible to establish the following statistical data in economic proceedings: cases of invalidation of a trademark certificate are 70%; cases on termination of infringement of rights to the trademark are 12%; cases on early termination of the trademark certificate are 15%; other cases on protection of rights to trademarks make 5%. The article details the legal requirements for each category of court cases. What additional claims are submitted for each category of court cases.
 The case law analysis revealed that courts for the protection of trademark rights in the pharmaceutical industry are most often sued for declaring the Ukraine trademark invalid in whole or in part and for an obligation to act. In addition, it was found that 70 percent of trademark cases in the pharmaceutical industry resulted in a full or partial award. In civil proceedings it is almost 90 percent. Thus, litigation is a very effective way of protecting trademark rights in the pharmaceutical industry.