It is known that Hungary’s “CHINOIN GyogyszeresVegyeszetiTermekekGyaraZrt.” is a member of the world-famous pharmaceutical holding company SANOFI. «CHINOIN GyogyszeresVegyeszetiTermekekGyaraZrt.» The company is an internationally registered “NO-ShPA / NO-SPA” in 1996 and is the legal owner of the trademark in the form of a box of this drug. These trademarks are also protected in the territory of Uzbekistan.
MERRYMED FARM LLC, located in Namangan region and registered as a legal entity in 2010, is also engaged in the production of medicines in the Hungarian market CHINOIN GyogyszeresVegyeszetiTermekekGyaraZrt. is a competitor to the company.
Recently, MERRYMED PHARM LLC has begun to counterfeit the world-famous brands of a number of reputable and well-known drug manufacturers. For example, the words “NOSH-PEN / NOSH-PEN” in the name of the drug “NOSH-PEN MR / NOSH-PEN MR” produced by the company and the color-graphic solution of the medicine box “CHINOIN GyogyszeresVegyeszetiTermekekGyaraZrt.” has led to a degree of phonetic and graphic confusion with the above brands, which has led consumers to believe that these drugs belong to a single manufacturer.
According to the decision of the special commission dated 16.02.2021, MERRYMED FARM LLC found a violation of the third paragraph of the first part of Article 13 of the Law “On Competition” and gave clear instructions to the company to eliminate this violation. However, MERRYMED FARM LLC did not comply with the instructions and appealed to the court to destroy the used and unused boxes and blisters of the drug “NOSH-PEN MR / NOSH-PEN MR” in the first paragraph of the instructions.
At the same time, MERRYMED FARM LLC is obliged to comply with the remaining requirements of the instruction, e.g. to change the label “NOSH-PEN / NOSH-PEN” in the name of the drug “NOSH-PEN MR / NOSH-PEN MR” and the color and graphic solution of this medicine box, also came without execution.
According to the Article 33 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Competition”, Antimonopoly Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan(hereinafter referred to as the Committee)is responsible for monitoring the implementation of its instructions.
Based on the above authority, the committee has repeatedly asked MERRYMED FARM LLC to comply with these requirements, but each time the company evaded compliance with the instructions and began to provide various unreasonable responses in order to gain time to facilitate the sale of civilian drugs.
For example, the instruction is not enforced because it is being considered in court. In this case, the Committeeexplained to the enterprise that one point of the instruction was being considered in court, which could not prevent the execution of its other points.
Or submission of information on the registration of the drug name by “MERRYMED FARM” LLC in the form “MER NOSH-PEN / NOSH-PEN MER”. In this case, the Committeechanged the name of the drug only in the form “MER / MER” in the “MR / MR”, and the “NOSH-PEN / NOSH-PEN” in the instructions remained unchanged. Itwas also explained that no work had been done to change the solution.
However, the above-mentioned cases were not eliminated by MERRYMED FARM LLC and both the instructions and letters of the Committee were not implemented.
These actions of MERRYMED FARM LLC were committed by the Committeefor failure to provide or untimely submission of information under Article 178, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Responsibility of the Republic of Uzbekistan, i.e. to the antimonopoly body and consumer protection bodies. The third part, i.e. the refusal to comply with the instructions of the antimonopoly body on the elimination of violations, the restoration of the original state, the elimination of violations of consumer rights, was found to be untimely.
As a result, the official of “MERRYMED FARM” LLC was brought to administrative responsibility in accordance with the established procedure and fined in accordance with the decision of the Shaykhontohur district court of Tashkent on 16.10.2021y.
The next letter of inquiry the Committeestates that “MERRYMED FARM” LLC does not produce drugs “NOSH-PEN MR / NOSH-PEN MR” and “MER NOSH-PEN / NOSH-PEN MER”, the trademark “MERNOSPEN / MERNOSPEN” reported to the agency. Today “CHINOIN GyogyszeresVegyeszetiTermekekGyaraZrt.” The company said it had no objections. Enforcement of antitrust authority instructions and the rule of law were ensured.
