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| The European Court of Justice ordered the EU's intellectual property office to consider its trademark recognition of Nestle's iconic Kit Kat chocolate bar |
The European Union's top court on Wednesday ordered the EU's intellectual property office to "reconsider" Kit Kat's bloc-wide trademark, prolonging Nestle's decade-long battle to claim exclusive rights over the chocolate bar's distinctive shape.
Nestle has
been locked in a blockbuster legal war with US rival Mondelez, maker of Cadbury
chocolate, over the four-fingered wafer biscuit which was first sold in 1935.
In a
closely watched case, the European Court of Justice said the EU's intellectual
property office must go back to the drawing board and revisit its 2006 to
decision to grant Kit Kat an EU trade mark based on its shape.
But in a
break for Nestle, the Luxembourg-based ECJ did not cancel the trade mark
outright, as suggested by the court's top advisor in April, with the EU
intellectual property office now tasked to re-visit the basis for awarding the
trademark.
"Today
no one has won, no one has lost. Nestle has saved time because its brand
remains registered for the time being," a court source told AFP.
"But
Nestle did lose a battle as it would have preferred a full confirmation of the
EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) decision," the source added.
The EU's
intellectual property office allowed Nestle in 2006 to trademark what the court
calls the "three-dimensional shape of the 'Kit Kat 4 fingers'
product".
This
trademark has helped keep copycat candy-bars out of grocery stores, and
punished the development of similar treats owned by Mondelez, including the
Norwegian favourite Kvikk Lunsj, a Kit Kat doppelganger.
The EU's
intellectual property office "must reconsider whether the three-dimensional
shape of a '4 Finger KitKat' can be retained as an EU trade mark," a court
statement said.
At issue is
that the food giant specifically failed to provide evidence that the Kit Kat
shape was well enough known in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal.
A lower EU
court "was right to annul the EU's intellectual property office decision,
in which it concluded that distinctive character had been acquired"
without including those countries in the case, a statement said.
The trade
mark criteria "must be shown throughout the EU," it said.
Nestle has
already lost a legal bid in Britain -- currently an EU member state but set to
leave next year -- to trademark the Kit Kat shape.
"Today?s
judgment is not final," a Nestle spokesperson said in an email.
"We
think the evidence proves that the familiar shape of our iconic four finger
KitKat is distinctive enough to be registered as an EU Trademark," Nestle
added.
The
European Court of Justice ordered the EU's intellectual property office to
consider its trademark recognition of Nestle's iconic Kit Kat chocolate bar
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