**Update here**

Global pharma giant AstraZeneca has asserted its rights to its purple trademark. AstraZeneca filed a complaint at the US District Court for the District of Delaware on 28 October, claiming Indian drug maker Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories’s generic version of Nexium (esomeprazole) breaches the trademark rights behind its branded drug.

AstraZeneca owns  trademark registrations for the color purple as applied to a capsule, the color purple applied to a capsule with both two and three gold rings, and a word mark for “The Purple Pill”.

According to AstraZeneca, Dr. Reddy’s introduced its purple Nexium generic “long after AstraZeneca’s trademarks became famous”.

Single color marks are notoriously difficult to register and protect. This should prove an interesting case to follow.

…source…