Ortho Pharmaceutical v. Cosprophar
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholds a lower court's dismissal of Ortho's complaint that Cosprophar's ads for its Anti-Age cosmetics line were misleading and damaging to Ortho's sales of the prescription drug Retin-A (transretinoic acid) ("The Rose Sheet" Aug. 16, 1993, p. 4). The appeals court rules that Ortho has not shown that its interests were damaged because the firm failed "to submit proof demonstrating that consumers view Cosprophar's products as a comparable substitute for Ortho's drugs." In addition, it affirms the lower court's finding that Ortho did not provide evidence showing that consumers were misled by Cosprophar's advertising. Cosprophar's Anti-Age line contains retinol, a cosmetic ingredient, which Cosprophar's ads said "belongs to the same family" as transretinoic acid and is similarly "effective in reducing wrinkles"