A civil court in Maharashtra has issued a notice to the Serum Institute of India in a passing off suit seeking to restrain the pharmaceutical company from using the trademark COVISHIELD or COVID-SHIELD or any other identical or similar name for its proposed vaccine for the Coronavirus induced pandemic.
The plaintiff claims that it filed an application for registration of COVI SHIELD trademark in its name on April 29, 2020. It further states that on July 11, 2020, the Registrar of Trademarks raised objection to the applications of SII pointing out that the plaintiff has made a prior application with respect to the trademark. The defendants even after having knowledge of the plaintiff's trademark have not taken any appropriate steps to stop using the trademark belonging to the plaintiff, says the plaintiff.
The plaint also arrays a Telengana based businessman, Mr. Bandaru Srinivas, as the second defendant on the allegation that he is also attempting to use the plaintiff's trademark.
