The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has successfully opposed the registration of "Co-Brufen" by Knoll AG as a trademark for "pharmaceutical preparations and substances as well as sanitary preparations".
Professor Tony Moffat, the Society's chief scientist, told The Journal on June 13 that when the Society had been informed of the trademark application by Knoll he had contacted the company on several occasions to explain the Society's opposition to "co-names".
The Society did not like co-names on public safety grounds, he said. It was worried that the names could be so similar that confusion might arise during prescribing and dispensing. It had held this position for 10 years.
Professor Moffat said that he had not received a reply from Knoll. Consequently, the Society had filed an official notice of objection with the United Kingdom Patent Office in January. The grounds for objection were: too many similar names already existed; the use of co-names in the UK was specifically for pharmaceutical products produced in fixed combinations of two active ingredients; and that in the UK co-names were used for generic not branded products.
Knoll had three months in which to respond to the objection. The Society had recently been informed that no such objection was received and the application was deemed to have lapsed. However, Knoll could re-apply at a later date.