Turkish company causes row over ‘pharmacist’ trademark

A pharmaceutical company in Turkey has run into trouble after attempting to register the Turkish word for ‘pharmacist’ as a trademark.

Eczacıbaşı registered ‘eczacı’ – a move which  triggered negative reactions from industry representatives.

The company, whose full name is Eczacıbaşı Holding, was founded in 1942. It makes  goods in the  building products, pharmaceuticals and consumer products sectors.

Eczacıbaşı  registered 45 different versions of the word with the Turkish Patent Institute.

But The Ankara Chamber of Pharmacists (ACP) said that it should be the sole user of the word, and filed a lawsuit at the Istanbul 3rd Intellectual and Industrial Rights Court.

A temporary injunction was ordered against Eczacıbaşı pending the trial’s outcome.

Süleyman Güneş, head at the ACP, said giving an occupational group’s name to a company would affect the whole pharmaceutical sector.

In a statement, a spokesman for Eczacıbaşı said the trademark registration  was “an attempt to prevent unfair competition” through using the word.

“It is known that the eczacı brand brings Eczacıbaşı to mind as an abbreviation,” the company said in a statement to Turkish news website the Hurriyet Daily News.

“The only aim is to prevent unfair competition by using a work that denotes the Eczacıbaşı name,” it added.