Nestlé trademarks KitKat shape
Nestlé has won a long running trademark row against rival Cadbury. The EU ruling prevents competitors from manufacturing confectionery, bakery products and biscuits in the same shape as KitKat bars, ie four trapezoidal bars aligned on a rectangular base.
In 2006, Nestle registered the shape of the Kit Kat as a trademark but its rival Cadbury won an appeal invalidating the registration, on the basis that a trait as general as a product’s shape could not be monopolised. But now regulators have overturned the original decision, after a fresh appeal from Nestlé. Regulators reached the new decision because they maintained that the four-fingered shape has been associated with Kit Kats for so long that consumers associate the shape with the brand.
Cadbury now has to decide whether or not it wants to appeal against the decision.
The KitKat ruling is the latest stage of a series of legal disputes between Nestlé and Cadbury over trademarks. In 2012, Cadbury secured a High Ruling that prevented rivals using the purple colour on its Dairy Milk wrappers.
