Maxim Ali has commented to the DP on the trademark dispute over a blood substitute medicine
The Intellectual Rights Court has accepted the application of Igor Maslennikov, a St Petersburg businessman, who requests the protection of several pharmaceutical company Grotex`s trademarks to be terminate due to non-use. Disputed trademarks related to the blood substitute drug Perftoran.
Maxim Ali, Partner and Head of IP/IT practice at Maxima Legal, told Delovoy Peterburg newspaper that the history of disputes between Igor Maslennikov and Grotex is quite extensive and it can give an approximate picture of what happened between the parties.
The expert suggested that Igor Maslennikov and Grotex had decided to cooperate. The pharmaceutical company was planning to manufacture and sell Perftoran, but for some reason did not do so (or at least referred to it as such). The entrepreneur was not happy with this development, expecting to receive regular payments for the patent. As a result, he started a series of arbitration proceedings against Grotex.
In Maxim’s opinion, the opportunity to agree between the parties was almost completely lost and Igor Maslennikov put an interesting “fork” to Grotex. The pharmaceutical company either admits that the product is in use, potentially creating problems in terms of royalty payments or infringement of the Perftoran patent. Or Grotex insists on non-use, in which case it risks losing the trademarks for non-use. “Generally speaking, this dispute is a very typical example of how intra-group problems between companies are resolved using intellectual property. In fact, such conflicts often escalate into disputes over trademarks, patents, contractual disputes and other similar disputes”, Maxim Ali summarized.