World-renowned chocolate company Cadbury’s have suffered a significant blow in their bid to alter a trademark based around a specific shade of the colour purple.
The brand famous for chocolate bars such as Dairy Milk, Crunchie and Wispa were attempting to widen their existing trademark on the distinctive shade of purple they use across most of their branding.
Currently, Cadbury’s trademark which was registered in relation to chocolate bars, applied to the whole visible surface or being the main colour when applied to the whole visible surface being predominantly that colour for the packaging of goods.
The brand owned by American confectionary business Mondalez International was attempting to remove the second half of the trademark concerning purple being the prime colour applied to the whole visible surface.
This meant that Cadbury wanted to trademark all forms of the colour purple on the packaging of confectionary.
However, in a hearing at the Court of Appeal this week Cadbury lost their battle following a complaint from competitor Nestle.
In his judgement Lord Justice Floyd, said: “If allowed to be the predominant colour rather than restricted to the whole surface, the registration could cover uses of purple in extravagantly different ways, the mark could appear as stripes, spots, a large central blob, or in any other form.”
He added that this would not satisfy a requirement that marks must resemble each other and only differ in non-distinctive ways.
This ruling leaves the Cadbury’s trademark vulnerable to rivals Nestle and other third parties taking legal action to get it removed for being invalidly registered.
A spokesperson for Mondelez International said: “We are disappointed with this decision. Our iconic colour purple has been used for Cadbury chocolate products for more than a century and is synonymous with the brand.
“We will continue to protect what we believe is a distinctive trademark and challenge those who attempt to pass off their products as Cadbury chocolate by using this colour.”
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