Protectability of Trademarks Registered for Medicines

Approaches to the registration and analysis of trademarks intended for use in different industries may vary significantly depending on the specifics of the industry. Thus, the peculiarities of the pharmaceutical market determine that the protection of trademarks registered for medicines differs from the usual practice. The purpose of the study is to form a comprehensive understanding of the specifics of the protectability of trademarks registered for medicines. In order to achieve the goal the following tasks were accomplished: (1) the criteria of trademark protectability set forth in the Russian legislation were studied; (2) the criteria of trademark protectability were studied in foreign jurisdictions on the example of the EU and the USA and compared with the domestic approaches; (3) the specifics of establishing distinctiveness of trademarks intended for medicines were analyzed; (4) the correlation between the criteria of trademark protectability and the requirements to the names of medicines was studied; (5) peculiarities of establishing likelihood of confusion for trademarks registered for medicines were analyzed. As a result of the study, ways of improving legislation and law enforcement practice aimed at forming a more harmonious approach to the registration of trademarks for medicines and to the consideration of related judicial and administrative disputes have been proposed.