The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has upheld the decision of the Assistant Registrar of Trademarks, Ahmedabad to reject the trademark 'Dopamine' applied by Torrent Pharmaceuticals, as it is a non proprietary generic name of a single chemical compound and as such it cannot be registered as a trade mark.

Justice S Jagadeesan, chairman and Dr. Raghbir Singh, vice chairman of IPAB, while pronouncing their judgment during their circuit sitting in Ahmedabad a few weeks ago, said the Assistant Registrar was correct in his conclusion that the mark fails to meet the requirements of Section 9 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 and is confusingly similar to the mark of the first respondent, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., who filed an opposition for allowing the mark.

As per the case, Torrent filed for registering the trademark Dopamine during 1988 with a user claim since 1985 and advertised in the Trade Marks Journal No.1094, dated 1.1.1995. Dr Reddy's Lab opposed the registration on the grounds that the impugned mark Dopamine is deceptively and confusingly similar to their mark Dopamet, an anti-hypertensive established in the market.

Reddy's Lab contended that Dopamine is a non-proprietary generic name and as such, it should not be allowed as a trademark under any circumstances. It is the name of a particular chemical compound which has a therapeutic property of being an 'ad energic' and this fact is well known to the doctors, chemists, pharmacists and all other persons associated with the pharmaceutical trade, and thus does not qualify for registration under section 9 of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958. Further, the mark is descriptive of goods, which also disqualify for registration.

The Assistant Registrar conceded to this view and rejected the trademark. Torrent filed an appeal before the High Court of Gujarat in 1999, and the case was transferred to IPAB.

Torrent in its appeal contended that the mark applied for consists of a word Dopamine per se used in respect of pharmaceutical and medicinal preparations contained in Schedule 'H' drug, and it is neither identical nor similar to the mark of Dr Reddy's.

Dr Reddy's Lab's counsel contended that Dopamine has been described in medical dictionary as "BP Commission approved name for 2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl) ethylamine; a sympathomimetic drug acting as a neurotransmitter and secreted by neurons situated in the ventral hypothalamus, amongst other places, and passing along axons to the medical eminence from which it releases into the hypophyseal portal system factors which have either an inhibitory or releasing effect." Further he contended that various authorities from the Supreme Court and the High Courts in India and the judgments of the Federal Supreme Court of Germany had observed to take a strict view for allowing registration of a mark in the area of drugs and pharmaceuticals.