Ciba Vision: Environmental Scanning Political Research Paper

Even consumers who shied away from purchasing contacts because of worries about infections or the dangers of cleaning them can enjoy the convenience and greater sanitation provided by CIBA's disposable lenses.

Legal

CIBA's success as a company is at least partially dependent upon its ability to patent new and innovative products. Although it has shown itself to be an innovative company by pioneering some of the developments within the contact lens industry, including as soft lenses, disposable lenses, and lenses for hard-to-fit clients, most of its competitors have produced similar products, and thus consumers have a wide range of products to choose from. CIBA must continue to be innovative and patent new products.

There continues to be a great deal of contentious legal dispute between CIBA and one of its main rivals, Bausch & Lomb. Recently, CIBA was forced to terminate an advertising campaign that claimed its contact lens solutions were better than Bausch & Lomb's at battling eye infections, causing Bausch & Lomb to sue CIBA for false advertising (Bausch & Lomb CIBA rival forced to halt ad campaign, 2011, Democrat and Chronicle).Although CIBA agreed to drop the campaign voluntarily, the similarity between the products of competitors will be the source of continued wrangling regarding patents for new products, as well as the question of what a 'better' contact lens is, in the minds of consumers.

References

Bausch & Lomb: Limited voluntary recall. (2007). Bausch & Lomb Official Website.

Retrieved May 21, 2011 at http://www.bauschandlomb.com/en_US/corporate/corpcomm/news/10_030607_BOL_Initiates_Limited.aspx

Bausch & Lomb CIBA rival forced to halt ad campaign. (2011, May 11). Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved May 22, 2011 at http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110423/Business/104230332/1001/business/B-L-rival-Ciba-Vision-halt-ad-campaign

Chavers, Gabrielle & Melissa Mota. (2010). Alcon and Novartis complete merger and form new

Alcon division to accelerate global leadership in eye care. Retrieved May 21, 2011 at http://www.alcon.com/en/docs/AlconTradeRelease.pdf

Overview. (2010). CIBA VISION Official Website. Retrieved May 21, 2011 at http://www.cibavision.com/about-us/overview.shtml

Research and development. (2010). CIBA VISION Official Website. Retrieved May 21, 2011 at http://www.cibavision.com/innovation/research-and-development.shtml

Vision care products. (2011). Alcon Official Website. Retrieved May 21, 2011 at http://www.alcon.com/en/about-alcon/business-divisions.aspx.....