The iconic three dimensional four-fingered shape of a Kit Kat – first created by Rowntree in York in 1935 – has been ruled by the board of appeal at the European Community Trade Mark Office as exclusive to the chocolate bar, following the latest stage of a long-running legal battle.
Nestlé registered the familiar Kit Kat shape in 2006 and Cadbury then applied to invalidate the registration, claiming that a trait as general as a product’s shape could not be trademarked.
Cadbury initially won its appeal, but the decision has now been overturned in Nestlé’s favour. The trademark regulators claim that the four-bar structure has been in use by Nestlé for so long that customers worldwide associate the shape with the brand.
Source: The Telegraph/Marketing/Huffington Post
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