On February 11, 2010, the Appeals division of the Lithuanian State Patent Bureau has dismissed opposition No. 2381 of the interested person PFIZER HEALTH AB regarding cancellation of the trademark “XALAPROST” registration No. 58812 owned by NOVARTIS AG.

The Appeals division stated that though the beginnings of the compared trademarks XALATAN and XALAPROST coincide but the difference of the last syllable is significant and causes visual and phonetic differences of the compared trademarks. Furthermore it was stated that the part –PROST of the opposed trademark is indicated in the WHO International Nonproprietary Names (INN) list as common stem. However in this case this factor was not significant as there were compared coinciding and non coinciding elements and in the trademark of the interested person there is no analogous common stem.