Apr 26, 2010
Clinique sues for infringement
<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh
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Also involved in the fray is Healthy Glow, a company owned by Dr Wong Yoke Meng, who is also a shareholder of the Clinique Suisse (CS) clinic at Paragon Medical Centre. -- ST PHOTO: ZAOBAO
SKINCARE and cosmetic giant, Clinique Laboratories (CL), has taken a medical clinic here with the similar Clinique name to court for infringing its trademark. Also involved in the fray is Healthy Glow, a company owned by Dr Wong Yoke Meng, who is also a shareholder of the Clinique Suisse (CS) clinic at Paragon Medical Centre. At the start of the hearing in the High Court on Monday, lawyers for CL - a subsidiary of US-based Estee Lauder Companies - said that it had been using the Clinique mark in the US since 1968 and in Singapore since 1976. Since then, the Clinique name had acquired 'valuable goodwill' which CS is trying to ride on, said Mr Andy Leck and Celeste Ang in their opening statment.
After operating as the Healthy Glow Men and Women's Clinic from 1998, it adopted the CS name in 2006. In May 2008, it was selling selling skincare and body-care products under the CS name which CL believed could be confused with its own products. Asking the court not to grant CL the monopoly over the name, lawyer for CS and Health Glow, Mr Kelvin Lee Ming Hui, argues that 'clinique' merely means clinic in French. He also explained that 'Suisse' had been added to highlight the clinic's connections with Aeskulup Hospital of Switzerland. There is no likelihood of confusion as there is no similarity between the two brand names and neither are the businesses similar, the lawyer said.
