Mumbai-headquartered Alkem Laboratories had approached the court, alleging that Prevego Healthcare & Research’s product infringed its copyright and trademarks ‘A to Z’ and ‘A to Z-NS’.
Justice Tejas Karia, while vacating the earlier ex parte ad interim injunction granted against Prevego Healthcare & Research, observed that the fonts used for the plaintiff’s (Alkem Laboratories’) products and the defendant’s (Prevego Healthcare’s) and other text were different, and that the colour scheme and trade dress were also different from Alkem Laboratories’ brand name (Multivein AZ).
“The plaintiff (Alkem Laboratories) cannot claim protection against the use of the letters of the English language on the basis of the stylised use of the letters, which has obtained copyright registration,” the court said in its ruling of January 17.
Before the ruling, senior counsel Darpan Wadhwa, appearing for Alkem Laboratories, argued that the company’s logo had a unique design, wherein the letters ‘A’ and ‘Z’ were written in a stylised manner. In addition, the word ‘to’ was written in a different colour in a stylised manner. The company also argued that its logo had been continuously in use since 1998 for its products.
Alkem Laboratories argued that in the third week of December 2024, it came across Prevego Healthcare & Research’s product bearing the mark. “Upon perusal of the defendant’s product, it was revealed that the mark was being used for products identical to the plaintiff’s products, i.e., health supplements,” it argued.
Senior advocate Arundhati Katju, along with Sidharth Acharya, partner of law firm Triverse Law, appearing for Prevego Healthcare & Research, argued that the company used a novel mark which had been invented and coined by it. They further argued that the company’s mark was visually distinct from Alkem Laboratories’ marks. The company had acquired legal, vested and common law rights to the exclusive use of the mark on account of its open, continuous and extensive use, they said.
“The plaintiff’s marks are device marks consisting of the stylised ‘A’ and ‘Z’ and the letter ‘to’ in between the two alphabets,” argued Prevego Healthcare & Research. “It is a trite law that device marks, by their nature, protect the specific visual representation of the mark. They do not grant broad protection over the underlying words or letters in isolation, especially when used in different stylisations or contexts.”
