Allied Law Practices

Pharmaceutical labeling and copyright

In the pharmaceutical trade field, copyright protection arising from the artwork of labels is necessary to prevent spurious drugs from being fed into the market. It is seen that the famous packages, due to their colour combination or eye appeal, catch the eyes of unscrupulous traders to infringe the copyright of the originator. It is straightforward to pass off one medicine for another if the packaging and colour combinations are similar. While the civil remedy is available for copyright infringement, the criminal remedy also came in handy by filing a police report for registering an FIR against such copyright infringement. It is now well settled that an offence out of copyright is considered a cognisable offence in which police can arrest the culprit without a warrant. The offences under the Copyright Act 1954 are punishable with imprisonment up to 3 years and thus are categorised under cognisable offences. For copyright infringements, besides the police complaint, one can also file a civil suit.

Spurious drugs under similar labels are a menace in society, and the central and state governments have made serious efforts to stop them. Because of identical labels, it becomes impossible to differentiate between original and counterfeit drugs. The Drugs and Cosmetics Act does not deal with copyright directly but indirectly vide section 17B. That section defines spurious drugs as drugs that resemble another drug.