On February 20, 2020, the Swiss company Novartis AG won a final victory in a dispute with the Ukrainian Pharmaceutical company Zdorovye on the illegality of registering the mark ‘Exo-Derm’ (in Ukrainian ‘Екзо-Дерм’) – the Supreme Court ruled to cancel registration of this designation.
The European company filed the lawsuit to the Kyiv Commercial Court in November 2017 with a claim for invalidating the certificate for the Exo-Derm trademark regarding all goods in Class 5, which was obtained by company Zdorovye two months earlier.
Novartis AG substantiated its claims by the fact that this TM is confusingly similar to its trademarks ‘Exoderil’ (in Ukrainian ‘Екзодеріл’) and ‘Exoderil’ registered in 2011 and 2014 for goods of class 5 and 3, 10, respectively.
Examination was also carried out, which confirmed the plaintiff’s arguments about the similarity of the signs.
The court took the side of the Swiss company, but the Court of Appeal ordered another examination, which provided the opposite conclusion, and the court reversed the previous court decision.
Novartis filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court, which discharge an order of the appellate court and sent the case back for retrial. After a second review, the Court of Appeal again sided with the company Zdorovye. The Supreme Court, however, made a final decision in favor of Novartis AG.