Nestlé trumps Cadbury in purple trademark dispute
Nestlé won a UK Court of Appeal dispute against Cadbury over the latter’s attempt to trademark the shade of purple it uses for its milk chocolate bar and drinking chocolate packaging.
Nestlé stated after the case in October: “We welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold Nestlé’s objection against Mondelez’s proposal to trade mark its Dairy Milk ‘purple’ colour across a broad range of products. We believe this was the right outcome from a legal perspective.”
Cadbury first applied to register the significant trademark for a wide range of products in October 2004 and Nestlé opposed.
The Intellectual Property Office registered the hue, Pantone 2685C and the High Court upheld that.
A Cadbury spokesman said: “Our colour purple has been linked with Cadbury for a century and the British public has grown up understanding its link with our chocolate.”
He added that the firm would now consider the next steps and the possibility of an appeal.
Ed Meikle, partner, intellectual property, at law firm DWF said: “Cadbury is protected by over 100 years of use of its purple and it would be a brave Nestlé to suddenly rebrand its Lion Bar [for example] using the same colour. It will not be bringing out any chocolate any time soon with the same shade of purple.”