{"id":113191,"date":"2024-08-01T19:30:23","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/?p=113191"},"modified":"2025-07-04T18:41:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T13:11:26","slug":"glaxo-trade-dress-vs-qpharm-trademark-infringement-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/glaxo-trade-dress-vs-qpharm-trademark-infringement-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Similarity Overdose : Glaxo’s trade dress vs Qpharm’s trade dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Plaintiff, Glaxo Group Limited<\/span>, is a leading global healthcare company providing pharmaceutical and medicinal preparations since 1715, with a significant presence in over 150 countries including India. Glaxo has been selling medicinal products under the trademarks ‘AUGMENTIN’, ‘BETNESOL’, ‘BETNOVATE’, ‘FEFOL’ and ‘FEFOL- Z’. A table below lists out Glaxo’s registered marks in India:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the Defendant No. 1 Qpharm Health Care Limited<\/span> was advertising and selling similar pharmaceutical products under deceptive marks, packaging and capsule trade dress, namely ‘BETNOTREAT’, ‘TOPMENTIN’ and ‘PIFOL- Z’. Glaxo approached the Court seeking protection for the packaging\/trade dress ‘AUGMENTIN’, ‘BETNESOL’, ‘BETNOVATE’, ‘FEFOL’. Glaxo filed a suit against trademark infringement and passing off by Qpharm for various product names\/marks as used by Glaxo. Glaxo also made Qpharm’s Director a party to the suit.<\/p>\n

Early this year, Glaxo discovered Qpharm\u2019s products under the marks – ‘BETNOTREAT’, ‘TOPMENTIN’ and ‘PIFOL- Z’ with similar packaging and capsule trade dress as those sold as ‘AUGMENTIN’, ‘BETNESOL’, ‘BETNOVATE’, ‘FEFOL’ and ‘FEFOL- Z’, being advertised and sold in Qpharm\u2019s website www.qpharm.in<\/a> as well as on third-party websites like IndiaMart. A comparison of the marks, packaging, and capsule designs used by both parties is provided below:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In an attempt to curb the circulation of products under the deceptively similar packaging\/trade dress, Glaxo issued a legal notice to Qpharm on February 1st, 2024, followed up with few more reminders, all of which were futile as Qpharm did not respond. Thereafter, Glaxo sought legal recourse by initiating the present suit.<\/p>\n

The Court observed that the packaging and capsule trade dress of Qpharm\u2019s products sold under the marks ‘BETNOTREAT’, ‘TOPMENTIN’ and ‘PIFOL- Z’ were deceptively similar to the products sold by Glaxo under the marks ‘AUGMENTIN’, ‘BETNESOL’, ‘BETNOVATE’, ‘FEFOL’ and ‘FEFOL- Z’. Further, Qpharm sold its products through identical trade channels targeting the same class of consumers who avail the products of Glaxo. It was observed that Qpharm adopted the visually deceptive packaging and capsule trade dress with the knowledge of Glaxo’s prior existing products in the pharmaceutical industry considering the close similarity of the packaging\/trade dress. Therefore, the Court noted that Glaxo would sustain irreparable loss if Qpharm\u2019s products continued to be sold under deceptively similar packaging\/trade dress.<\/p>\n

As the balance of convenience was in Glaxo\u2019s favour, the Court restrained Qpharm from using, manufacturing, selling, offering for sale and\/or advertising any medicinal and pharmaceutical preparation under the deceptively similar packaging\/trade dress. The Court further directed that Qpharm\u2019s product listings under the marks ‘BETNOTREAT’, ‘TOPMENTIN’ and ‘PIFOL- Z’ with the deceptively similar packaging\/trade dress be taken down from all third-party websites like IndiaMart within 72 hours of receiving a copy of the Court\u2019s Order.<\/p>\n

Citation: Glaxo Group Limited vs Qpharm Health Care Limited And Anr.<\/a>, High Court of Delhi, 3rd July, 2024 [CS(COMM) 534\/2024].<\/p>\n

Authored by Ms. Swathi Muthukumar, Trademark Team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reviewed and confirmed by Ms. Bhavishya B., IP Renewal and Maintenance Team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The case note\/s in this blog post have been written by IP Attorneys at BananaIP Counsels based on their review and understanding of the judgments. It may be noted that other IP Attorneys and experts in the field may have different opinions about the cases or arrive at different conclusions therefrom. It is advisable to read the Judgments before making any decisions based on the case notes.<\/p>\n

If you have any questions, or if you wish to speak with an\u00a0IP expert\/attorney<\/a>, please reach us at:\u00a0contact@bananaip.com<\/a>\u00a0or 91-80-26860414\/24\/34.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Delhi High Court granted an injunction against Qpharm for using deceptively similar packaging and trade dress to Glaxo\u2019s products. This case illustrates the enforcement of trade dress rights and legal remedies available for trademark infringement and passing off in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":44,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5495,6,11],"tags":[486,6019,5,1160,8304,11872,3394,41],"class_list":["post-113191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-reviews","category-intellectual-property","category-trademarks","tag-delhi-high-court","tag-glaxo","tag-intellectual-property","tag-passing-off","tag-pharmaceutical-law","tag-qpharm","tag-trade-dress","tag-trademark-infringement-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143696,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113191\/revisions\/143696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}