Ilyashev & Partners has successfully represented the interests of Latvian pharmaceutical manufacturer Kalceks AS in a dispute concerning the recognition of the designation “Promedol” as a well-known trademark in Ukraine in the name of Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers – Pharmaceutical Group Zdorovia LLCand “Kharkiv Pharmaceutical Enterprise “Zdorovye Narodu” LLC.
Kalceks AS is widely known as the manufacturer of anesthetic products under the trademark “Promedol Kalceks Промедол Калцекс”, protected by International Registration No. 1320345 dated 20 June 2016 for goods in Classes 1 and 5 of the Nice Classification. In 2016, Kalceks obtained Ukrainian registration certificate No. UA/15324/01/01 for the medicinal product “Promedol Kalceks”, solution for injection, 20 mg/ml” (Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine No. 787 dated 28 July 2016).
Disputes regarding the use of the designation “Promedol” in the product name with Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers have been ongoing since 2016.
In 2025, Ilyashev & Partners’ team protected the Latvian manufacturer in the Supreme Court in a dispute concerning the invalidation of Ukrainian trademark certificates No. 129188 and No. 227836 for “Promedol-ZN” and “Promedol Промедол”, proving that the designations “Promedol” and “Промедол” are generic names for certain types of medicinal products, which are included in the World Health Organization (WHO) International Nonproprietary Names (INN) list and cannot be monopolized by a single manufacturer.
However, in 2021, in a related case, the Commercial Court of Kharkiv Region recognized the designation “Промедол” as a well-known trademark in Ukraine in the name of Pharmaceutical Group Zdorovia LLC and “Kharkiv Pharmaceutical Enterprise “Zdorovye Narodu” LLC for goods classified under the 5th class of the International Classification of Goods and Services, namely: pharmaceutical preparations, chemico-pharmaceutical preparations, medicines for human purposes, narcotics, drugs for medical purposes.
The acquisition of such status effectively enabled these companies to demand a ban on the use of the “Промедол” designation by other pharmaceutical market participants, which led to restrictions on the use of this name in trademarks and product names of other manufacturers.
This created serious restrictions on the Latvian manufacturer’s ability to sell its products and posed a risk of being recognized as counterfeit, which forced Kalceks AS to suspend the supply of its products to Ukraine.
To protect Latvian pharmaceutical manufacturers’ interests, Ilyashev & Partners’ Intellectual Property teamprepared an appeal against the decision of the Commercial Court of Kharkiv Region and proved, in particular, that the granting of exclusive rights to the “Промедол” designation unreasonably restricts competition and creates obstacles for other manufacturers of medicinal products that use international nonproprietary names within their trademarks or product names.
On 2 February 2026, the Eastern Commercial Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Kalceks AS. It overturned the decision of the first instance court recognizing the designation “Промедол” as a well-known trademark in Ukraine for goods classified under the 5th class of the International Classification of Goods and Services in the name of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Thanks to the efforts of Ilyashev & Partners, judicial obstacles for Kalceks AS regarding its business operations in Ukraine related to the sale of anesthetic products under the trademark “Promedol Kalceks Промедол Калцекс” (International Registration No. 1320345 dated 20 June 2016 for goods in Classes 1 and 5 of the Nice Classification) have been removed.
The case was handled by Mikhail Ilyashev, Managing Partner; Oleh Trokhymchuk, Counsel and Co-Head of Dispute Resolution; Andriy Lytvyn, Head of the Kharkiv Office and Attorney at Law.