ZEENAT MOORAD: KitKat gets the finger
Swiss food giant Nestlé has been told that it cannot trademark the shape of its iconic four-finger KitKat chocolate bar
Swiss food giant Nestlé has been told that it cannot trademark the shape of its iconic four-finger KitKat chocolate bar — it’s just not distinctive enough. The company has long insisted that its wafer chocolate bar deserves protection. In fact, it’s mounted quite a few legal challenges over the years to try to preserve its, um, status. The most protracted is a decade-long battle with bitter rival Cadbury. Some background is necessary: the companies have been fighting over the right to use the three-dimensional, four-finger shape since KitKat bars were granted protected status by the EU’s intellectual property office in 2006. After a legal bid by Mondelez, the US owner of Cadbury, the EU’s general court annulled the registration in 2016. This prompted an appeal by Nestlé. Now, the European court of justice has been instructed by advocate-general Melchior Wathelet to dismiss Nestlé’s appeal. According to Wathelet, Nestlé didn’t produce enough evidence to show that its trademark has a ...
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