Moderna wins trademark case against JW Pharmaceutical

Moderna has won a patent judgment to cancel the trademark "SPIKE," registered in 1989 by JW Pharmaceutical, saying the name is similar to Moderna's Covid-19 product name, in Korea.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeals Board (IPTAB) ruled in favor of Moderna regarding the cancelation of the SPIKE trademark registration, filed by Moderna against JW Pharmaceutical last Thursday.

"It is impossible to avoid cancellation as JW Pharmaceutical did not provide any information that it used the trademark for a designated product in Korea three years prior to the date of the cancellation request. The company did not prove a legitimate reason for not using the trademark, either," the IPTAB ruled.

JW Pharmaceutical registered the SPIKE trademark in 1989, and the company secured trademark rights until September 2029 through a renewal of trademark rights in 2019.

JW Pharmaceutical uses the trademark for its various drugs and health-functional food products, including digestive system drugs, vitamins, and allergy drugs.

Moderna requested the cancellation of JW's SPIKE trademark in June 2022 to secure the intellectual property rights of a similar trademark as it was supplying its Covid-19 vaccine Spikevax Inj. The company applied for a domestic trademark of Spikevax Inj. in March 2022.