- Court
- Bombay High Court
- Date of judgment
- Judge
- Firdosh P. Pooniwalla
- Outcome
- Injunction granted
Headnote
Ad interim injunction granted restraining use of XIGAMET against the plaintiff's registered ZITA-MET for anti-diabetic preparations. The Court rejected the argument that no confusion could arise because both are Schedule-H prescription medicines, taking judicial notice on Medley Laboratories that prescriptions have lost their significance in India and such drugs are sold over the counter, and holding on Cadila that physicians, doctors and chemists are not immune to mistake, with handwritten prescriptions and telephone orders adding to the risk. The submission that the molecules differ was held to strengthen rather than weaken the plaintiff's case: where rival drugs treat the same ailment but have different compositions, confusion is more likely and the consequences more serious, so the test of deceptive similarity is to be applied most strictly.
Disposition
Ad interim injunction granted.
Headnote by BRB Legal, written from the judgment: a summary for reference, not legal advice. Read the judgment itself before relying on it.