On June 29, 2009, The Appeals division of Lithuanian State Patent Bureau satisfied opposition No. 2280 of the interested person Bausch & Lomb Incorporated regarding cancellation of the international trademark „OCUVIS“ registration No. 916320 owned by Santen Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd.

Trademark of the interested person is verbal and compounded of only one element OCUVITE, which is filled with standard capital Latin letters. The opposed trademark is also a verbal mark and compounded of the element OCUVIS, which is filled with standard capital Latin letters. The Appeals division stated that since trademarks are registered for pharmaceutical preparations, the similarity of the trademarks should be estimated particulary critical. Trademarks OCUVITE and OCUVIS are similar visually due the similar length. The beginning OCUVI- is coincident and only endings –TE and –S differ. Comparable trademarks OCUVITE and OCUVIS are similar phonetic due to 5 coincident sounds and they take the same positions in the comparable trademarks. Trademarks OCUVITE and OCUVIS are not comparable semantically, because both trademarks are artificial and have no meaning. As a consequence it was stated that the opposed trademark “OCUVIS” is confusingly similar to the trademark “OCUVITE” of the interested person.