Colgate-Palmolive Company protects its copyright in Uzbekistan

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Antimonopoly Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan considered the appeal of the US-based company Colgate-Palmolive Company about violation of the company’s intellectual property rights by the Uzbek company Torimed Pharm by imitating the appearance of the products with the designation “GALAXY” to a similar degree of mixing with a combined trademark of the company "COLGATE".

Colgate-Palmolive Company manufactures toothpaste under combined trademarks using the word "Colgate". Torimed Pharm also produces toothpaste, the company in 2016 received a certificate for the word mark “Galaxy, Galaksi, Galaxy”. However, the color scheme of the appearance of the tube and the packaging of toothpaste with the “Galaxy” trademark, as well as other elements, reproduce the appearance of similar products produced by the Colgate-Palmolive Company, which contributes to misleading consumers regarding the manufacturers of these toothpastes.

The competition law of the Republic of Uzbekistan envisages prohibition of not only the use of identical or confusingly similar trademarks, but also misleading consumers regarding imitation of goods introduced into civil circulation by an economic entity (competitor) by reproducing the external design of the goods and its form, name, labeling, labeling, packaging, colors, ... or other elements that individualize the product of an economic entity (competitor).

Since the fact of a violation leading to unfair competition was confirmed, the antimonopoly body, in accordance with the established procedure, initiated a case against Torimed Pharm, which was found to violate Article 13 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Competition”.

Based on a review of Torimed Pharm, an order was issued to eliminate the violation by stopping the sale of products in packages that mimic the design of the packaging and advertising of products of the Colgate-Palmolive Company, as well as to destroy the said packages that are in the company’s warehouses and by withdrawing the products from circulation.