Be the spark? Roche’s Spark sues fel­low gene ther­a­py de­vel­op­er blue­bird for ‘usurpa­tion’ of trade­mark

Spark Ther­a­peu­tics takes a lot of pride in the brand it’s built up over the last eight years. And it wants blue­bird bio to know that.

The Philadel­phia-based gene ther­a­py play­er, which is now a sub­sidiary of Roche, has sued blue­bird for trade­mark in­fringe­ment — through a pro­mo­tion­al cam­paign around its ex­per­i­men­tal treat­ment for sick­le cell dis­ease where the word “spark” fea­tures promi­nent­ly. Ac­cord­ing to Spark, that amounts to “usurpa­tion.”

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