It's pleasing to report on an important win for 'the little guys' doing battle with a global corporate behemoth. It's also a good example of the power of having courage of conviction allied to strong professional advice and support.
Apollo Generics is a Liverpool based SME which develops and sells prescription pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medicines to small independent pharmacies, the NHS and regional hospital trusts.
Hayley Morgan, a trade mark attorney at Brabners, did a great job advising Apollo Generics in its successful battle with GlaxoSmithKline and proving that small firms shouldn't just cave in when faced with the might of a multinational and instead there are times when it's right to take a stand and defend yourself where there are genuinely good grounds for doing so.
A family-run business has defeated the global drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline in a dispute about an over-the-counter painkiller. Apollo Generics applied to register its brand Zanamol, a pain relieving drug and nutritional supplement, as a UK trademark in October 2016. The move was opposed by the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline on the grounds that it was too similar in name and class specification to Panadol, which is one of the biggest selling brands of paracetamol-based pain relief in the UK. GlaxoSmithKline argued that it was likely that the products could be confused. The UK Intellectual Property Office, however, ruled in favour of Apollo Generics. It said that neither pharmaceutical and healthcare professionals, nor members of the public, would be confused between the marks.
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