The battle for the colour purple
Cadbury has won a partial victory against Nestlé in their long-running legal dispute of the use of purple branding as the UK Intellectual Property Office denied Nestlé’s bid to have Cadbury’s trademark of the colour revoked.
Nestlé claimed that the colour, known formally as pantone 2865c and trademarked by Cadbury in 2008, was not sufficiently distinctive.
However, the latest ruling, which comes after a three-year battle in the courts, applies only to chocolate bars and drinks. The patent office has yet to decide whether to extend the trademark to cover all chocolate products.
“This is a long-running action by us to protect our famous colour purple and we’re pleased with this ruling,” said a spokesman for the Dairy Milk maker. “This colour is clearly associated to Cadbury and something we jealously guard.”
A decision in favour of Nestlé would have been a blow to Cadbury, which first applied to register purple as a trademark in 1995 and would have opened the way for rivals, including supermarkets, to use the colour on their own-brand chocolate bars.
The dispute is set to continue as the Intellectual Property Office said that it was not yet satisfied that the colour had acquired a distinctive association for Cadbury on ‘chocolate confectionery’ and ‘chocolate assortments’.
That would include products such as Nestlé’s Quality Street selection boxes, which often traditionally appeared in mainly white or pink boxes, but are now regularly produced in purple. Nestlé declined to comment, saying it intended to wait for the final draft of the judgment due in several weeks.