With respect to the claim of passing off, the Court examined the packaging and the colour scheme of the two products and concluded,
“It is apparent from the above that the colour scheme of the packaging and get up are not similar.”
Further, the Court also observed that where a drug necessarily has to be prescribed by a registered medical practitioner, especially, for the treatment of an ailment as serious as breast cancer, it is difficult to accept Sun Pharma’s contention that a medical practitioner is likely to be confused because the initial three letters of the two marks – which are derived from the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used to make the drug – are the same.
“An oncologist, who is an expert and who prescribes the medicines for the treatment of breast cancer, in our opinion, is not likely to get confused because the two drugs are being sold with a mark containing the same first three letters, that are, ‘LET’ when the same are admittedly derived from the INN ‘LETROZOLE’; more so, when the same drug is being sold by not only the parties herein but also by many other companies, a majority of which selling the said drug contain the same first three letters ‘LET’,” the Court observed in this regard.
Source: Barandbench
