Trademarks declared for the individualization of medicines and dietary supplements (dietary supplements), as well as other trademarks, are checked for compliance with the general requirements specified in the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation
According to existing judicial and law enforcement practice, dietary supplements and medicines can be classified as a group of homogeneous goods, since they can be the same in their produced forms (syrups, tablets, capsules, etc.), have a single sales market and a common circle of consumers. It is for this reason that in the process of checking designations for similarity, the declared designation and existing trademarks in the field of medicines and dietary supplements are compared.
Features of peer review for medicinal products:
1. It is necessary to make sure that there is no even hypothetical possibility of misleading the consumer regarding the properties and composition of the product, as well as its manufacturer. To check the designation for the presence or absence of similarity with registered International Nonproprietary Names (INN), a comparative analysis of the drug trademark with names that are already available in open databases approved by the INN is carried out.
2. It is possible to include generally accepted symbols (an image of a bowl with a snake, a red or green cross, etc.) in a trademark as an unprotected element, but provided that it does not have a dominant position in the designation.
Features of expert verification regarding dietary supplements:
1. Checking the designations intended for biologically active additives (BAA) is especially important, since their composition and origin, as well as the effectiveness of the effect on the human body, differs from the result of using medicines. Dietary supplements are not medicines, and an indication of the presence of a medicinal substance in a dietary supplement can mislead the consumer and lead to the most adverse consequences for their health. Therefore, it is extremely important to check the designation declared for a dietary supplement for similarity with an already registered INN.
2. In addition, a check is carried out for the absence of similarity between the applied for trademark and the designations registered in the Register of products that have passed state registration. The said Register is maintained by Rospotrebnadzor. According to the norms of Russian legislation, dietary supplements introduced into production for the first time and dietary supplements first imported into the territory of the Russian Federation must be registered in the Register under the name used. If a registered identical name is identified, a decision is made on the impossibility of registering a trademark for dietary supplements in order to prevent misleading of Consumers and causing harm to their health.
Summarizing all of the above, it can be noted that trademarks for dietary supplements and medications require careful additional checks in order to prevent the risk of misleading the consumer not only regarding the characteristics, properties of the product, its manufacturers, but also the consequences of their use.
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