The Shanghai Roche Pharmaceutical Co has filed a lawsuit against Chongqing-based Southwest Pharmaceutical Co, the Shanghai Fuxing Pharmacy Chain Management Co and Fuxing's Ningqiang Road outlet for violating the trademark of its popular painkiller Saridon by producing and selling the drug with a similar brand name.

　　Shanghai Roche, a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, requested a halt of the violation, 500,000 yuan (US,241) compensation and a public apology in newspapers.

　　The Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court heard the case and will announce a decision later.

　　In 1987, Roche signed a three-year contract with Southwest, licensing the Chinese drugmaker to manufacture Saridon. The domestic company received production technology and the right to use the trademark free of charge.

　　In 1993, without informing Roche, Southwest registered the Chinese brand name of Saridon as "Sanlitong" and "Sanlietong" - sharing a similar pronunciation, but with different Chinese characters.

　　The drug manufacturer continued to produce and sell Saridon pills after the contract expired.

　　Roche discovered the infringement in 1994 and competed with Southwest for Saridon's Chinese name, "Sanlitong."

　　According to Li Jingbing, Roche's attorney, Roche successfully won the rights to the Chinese trademark for "Sanlitong" in November 1999. But, late last year Roche found that Southwest was producing a painkiller called "Sanlietong," misleading consumers by using the name "Sanlitong" in brackets immediately after.

　　Roche showed four packages of "Sanlietong" to the court, all purchased at Fuxing's outlet on January 25.

　　Southwest claimed it didn't violate Roche's trademark. The company argued that Saridon (Sanlitong) is a generic term for the drug and therefore couldn't have a trademark.

　　"According to a regulation announced by the Chongqing Drug Administration in 1999, we can use Sanlitong as a used name after the trademark, if it is a generic term until 2005," said Zhu Xiaojian, Southwest's attorney.