Pfizer to appeal China trade mark ruling

Having won an intellectual property dispute for its blockbuster erectile dysfunction agent Viagra (sildenafil) in China last year (Marketletter June 12, 2006), global drug giant Pfizer is now fighting on the trade mark front. This is on the use of the name "Wei Ge," which sounds similar to Viagra in Chinese and translates as "great man," that has been widely used in the local media and understood to be the name of the company's product. The Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court has ruled that Chinese drugmaker Guangzhou Wellman, which registered Wei Ge for its impotence drug, can retain the right to use it. Pfizer says that it it has filed an appeal on the ruling.