“A temporary injunction directing Serum Institute to discontinue the use of mark ‘Covishield’ for its vaccine will cause confusion and disruption in the vaccine administration programme. In this case, thus, the grant of an injunction would have large-scale ramifications traversing beyond the parties to the suit,” the order said.
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The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to restrain Serum Institute of India Private Limited from using the name ‘Covishield’ for its vaccine against COVID-19 noting that such an order would create confusion and disruption in the vaccine administration programme.
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A division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and C V Bhadang dismissed an appeal filed by pharmaceutical firm Cutis Biotech claiming trademark of the name ‘Covishield’ and seeking a direction to Serum Institute of India to stop using the name for its COVID-19 vaccine. The court in its order said it is now widely known that Covishield is a vaccine to counter Coronavirus.
“A temporary injunction directing Serum Institute to discontinue the use of mark ‘Covishield’ for its vaccine will cause confusion and disruption in the vaccine administration programme. In this case, thus, the grant of an injunction would have large-scale ramifications traversing beyond the parties to the suit,” the order said.
It said the Union government had rolled out an extensive vaccination drive and, as on March 16, 66 million doses of Covishield have been supplied to the Centre, while some 59 million doses have been supplied to 72 countries.
The bench added that the Union government had placed a further order of 10 crore doses of Covishield.
“Serum Institute has, to date, made a sale amounting to Rs 37,507 lakh through the sale of Covishield vaccine. With these facts, the balance of convenience is not in favour of Cutis Biotech. Grant of injunction against Serum Institute would have a serious impact on its business,” the court said.
The court, in its order, noted that neither Cutis Biotech nor Serum Institute have a registration for the trademark ‘Covishield’.
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