TMCnet News
Roche wins rights to Tamiflu name in cyberspaceThe Associated Press Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche AG won control of an Internet domain name including the name of its anti-influenza drug Tamiflu, under a ruling issued by a United Nations panel Tuesday. Arbitrators for the World Intellectual Property Organization ordered the transfer of the domain name http://www.tamiflu-vaccine.com to the Basel-based firm, which had complained that it infringed its trademark rights. The ruling upheld Roche's complaint against the individual that registered the name, Kevin Reed, from southern England. The company said that Reed was "intentionally attempting, for commercial purposes, to attract Internet users to its Web site by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant's mark." Tamiflu, which reduces the symptoms of flu, is the drug that experts say offers the best initial hope of containing a human influenza pandemic in the event that the bird flu virus mutates into a strain that can easily spread from human to human. It also helps treat individual cases of bird flu caught by humans from infected poultry. The WIPO panel found that the addition of the suffix "vaccine" to the Web site name "does not alter the fact that the domain name is confusingly similar to the complainant's trademark." The decision also said that Reed had no rights or legitimate interest in the domain name. "It is inconceivable to the panel that the respondent registered the domain name without prior knowledge of the complainant and the complainant's mark," the panel added. Reed did not reply to Roche's contentions, the WIPO panel said. On Tuesday, the site still offered to sell face masks and respirators for use against a bird flu outbreak. Anyone can register a domain name for a few dollars, which has led to so-called "cybersquatters." The U.N. arbitration system, which started in 1999, allows those who think they have the right to a domain to get it back without having to fight a costly legal battle or pay large sums of money. |