November 22, 2011
Cadbury’s have won a victory in the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) allowing them to trademark the colour purple – Pantone 2865c – for many of its items of confectionary. A spokesperson for the company, who faced a legal challenge from rival Nestlé said “any marketer will understand that you zealously guard your icons and none more so than colour.” Nestlé had argued that the colour “lacked distinctive character”. The ruling is currently in interim form but is expected to become final in due course.
In his ruling, registrar Allan James said “I do not think that there is any doubt on the evidence that there is an association of some kind in the public’s mind between the colour applied for and Cadbury.”
The trademark is limited to packaging for chocolate bars and eating and drinking chocolate, but does not extend to other items, for example selection boxes of chocolates. The ruling means that Nestlé can continue to use a similar colour on their chocolate selection, Quality Street.
A spokesperson for Nestle said “We are awaiting the final decision. In its interim decision the UK IPO has accepted Cadbury’s application only for some of the goods for which Cadbury had applied and rejected it for others, in line with Nestlé’s request. We will assess the final decisions once it has been issued.”
The case comes as other similar challenges are on course to be heard. In particular designer shoe company Louboutin is seeking to trademark its use of red on the soles of its shoes and jewellers Tiffany are similarly hoping to trademark its pale blue colouring.
