Drug Trade Marks: United In Theory, In Practice We Fall

Trade marks are more highly-prized today than ever before, as witnessed by the huge amounts of cash being paid for long-standing brands and trade names. And this applies to the pharmaceutical industry too, most notably in the over-the-counter sector where often there has never been patent protection.

Chairing a workshop on Trade Names and Switching at the European Proprietary Medicines Manufacturers' Association (AESGP) 32nd annual meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 1, John Ball, of Warner Wellcome Europe and chairman of the association's economic affairs and public relations committee, used novel slides of mice, car badges and film packaging to emphasize that Walt Disney, Mercedes-Benz and Kodak would not enter a new market without using their established brand images. Drug manufacturers, however, are having problems in this area.

With a pan-European market of over three hundred million consumers, the new European Union marketing authorization system was designed to facilitate the free movement of medicinal products within the Union. However, AESGP workshop delegates were told, this is rendered impossible by the differing ways in which EU member states interpret trade mark rules with regard to medicines released from prescription control.