Allergan Inc. Wins Trade Name Court Dispute

Allergan Inc., the Irvine-based eye-care products subsidiary of SmithKline Beckman, has won a court order forcing its primary competitor, Bausch & Lomb Inc., to withdraw all of its soft contact lens solutions sold under the name Hypo-Care because of trade name problems.

The recall was ordered by the U.S. District Court in New York because the Hypo-Care name was found to be too close to Allergan’s Hydrocare line of contact lens solutions and was liable to confuse consumers.

A Bausch & Lomb spokeswoman said the company expects the recall to be “very small” because it has already substituted a new line of solutions named HypoClear for the products involved. She said the costs of the nationwide recall would have no effect on the company’s financial results.