June 27 2005

EFF has filed a lawsuit against French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis Group on behalf of Medical Week News publishers of the medical news website AcompliaReport.com. Sanofi-Aventis the world's third largest pharmaceutical company threatened Medical Week News with legal action based on its use of the word "Acomplia" in its AcompliaReport.com website domain name.

Acomplia is the name of a Sanofi-Aventis drug intended to combat obesity and assist with smoking cessation that has shown promise in clinical trials in the United States in Europe and has just been submitted to the US FDA and European regulators for approval. AcompliaReport.com is an independent online newsletter devoted to reporting news about the drug.

In the lawsuit filed in US District Court in San Francisco Medical Week News asserts its fair use right to use the word "Acomplia" in publishing independent news about the forthcoming drug. It asks the court to declare that Medical Week News is entitled to continue to use the word "Acomplia" in the AcompliaReport.com domain name and website.