Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
You may have heard about Cadbury suing all possible parties over its dearly loved purple coloured branding. In 2012, Cadbury won a legal dispute, allowing it to stop other chocolate maker from using their branded colour - known as Pantone 2865c.
In 2013, Nestle challenged the verdict and won on the basis that the trademark wording put its own Purple One and Quality street packaging at risk. This is because Cadbury’s original trademark aimed to establish protection for the colour "applied to the whole visible surface or being the predominant colour of the wrappers on bars and tablets of chocolate.”
Cadbury’s original trademark aimed to establish protection for the colour "applied to the whole visible surface or being the predominant colour of the wrappers on bars and tablets of chocolate.”
Cadbury has since removed the ‘predominant’ part, but this did not work and the Court of Appeal has refused to allow Cadbury’s monopoly over the colour. It said the trademark application lacked "the required clarity, precision, self-containment, durability and objectivity to qualify for registration.”
In February 2019, Cadbury’s owner, Mondelez International chose to abandon its pursuit of the trademark all together. This means that in 2020 any chocolate brand could potentially choose a Pantone 2865c coloured wrapper, where the colour covers the confectionery almost entirely.
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