Apple, an American multinational technology company lost a legal trademark dispute against Swatch, a Swiss watchmaker, twice in recent weeks. The Cupertino-based company claimed in a lawsuit that Swatch’s “Tick different” logo strongly resembles its well-known “Think different” slogan.

In 2015, Swatch had registered “Tick different” as a trademark (word/figurative mark) along with the famous half-sentence “One more thing” (word mark), with which, Apple’s founder Steve Jobs usually introduced an innovative product at the end of his presentations. Apple found it to be a copy of its slogan, to which, Swatch defended itself by giving an even older reference of the slogan “One more thing” – the well-known television detective, Columbo, who on numerous occasions said “Only one  more thing”- that perfectly fits in the way how Swatch promoted and advertised its NFC – capable watch.

In early April, the Swiss court ruled in Swatch’s favor over the use of its “Tick different” logo. Apparently, the court stated that the company didn’t have any legal documents which could prove Apple’s allegations against Swatch. During the end of the month, Apple lost another battle against Swatch in Australia where the Australian Trademark Office firmly believed that Apple never used the wording in connection with certain goods or services but only in presentations.

Apple is now taking strict actions against this trademark registration in several countries although it has already lost two battles against the Swatch watchmaker in the last few weeks. Of course, Swatch would not stand a chance in the US where the “Think different” advertising slogan is quite famous in the company’s campaigning records. More Visit: http://trademarkmaldives.com/

Britain’s fuller’s brewery achieved victory when the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) discarded a trademark opposition put forward by the American multi-national food manufacturing company, Kellogg. On May 2, 2019, Thursday, the UKIPO gave a verdict  in favor of the brewery, stating that Kellogg’s couldn’t demonstrate the image and  reputation of its ‘Froot Loops’ brand in the UK.

In June, 2018, Kellogg’s filed an opposition against Fuller’s ‘fruit loop’ mark for a seasonal summer beer, which according to the food manufacturer infringed its EU trademark (EU number 145325) for the breakfast cereal brand. The company even asserted that Fuller’s mark would gain an undue advantage from its cereal product’s reputation and would defame the brand by its use with respect to an alcoholic beverage. On the other hand, Fuller’s argued by claiming that the beer and cereal products had almost nothing in common with respect to the taste and flavor to be placed next to each other in markets.

The UKIPO, after hearing all the justifications and claims, declared that the marks were similar to a very low degree, keeping in mind the other attributes in Fuller’s mark and the alcohol content label. It also stated that Kellogg’s didn’t have much distinctiveness in the UK due to which it couldn’t provide any sales figures except for the marketing figures in relation to a special edition of Unicorn Froot Loops.

Fuller’s has been awarded costs of US $ 3,413 by the UKIPO. More Visit: http://trademarkmaldives.com/

Cadbury, the second largest confectionary brand in the world, has used the purple packaging as its trademark for the “Dairy Milk” chocolate since 1995. Despite Cadbury’s official rights in the Registered Trademark of the shade Pantone 2685C, there has been a long-running “candy war” with their top competitor and rival Nestle over its purple packaging trademark rights. Nestle protested against the trademark claiming that the trademark application failed to adhere to durability requirements and the sample color on the document could fade over time and discredit the accuracy of the trademark. It also stated that Cadbury’s trademark was imprecise and generated ambiguity. In April 2019, The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) rendered a decision favoring Nestle by rejecting two of Cadbury UK Limited’s more recent trade mark applications corresponding to the purple shade as applied to its chocolate products.

Cadbury has so far failed to amend description of their 1995 registration, considered to provide limited protection for the color with respect to the chocolate in a tablet form even after making several attempts in the past for their Trademark Protection by following the decision to allow their description under UK no. 3019362 stated as “the color purple (Pantone 2685C) as shown in the form of application, applied to the whole visible surface of the packaging of goods”.

The loss in the court of appeal has put Cadbury in an uncertain place, leading a way for rivals to further challenge them. More Visit: http://trademarkmaldives.com/

Pepsico concedes defeat against the Indian farmers they had sued of Intellectual Property Rights infringement of illegally growing its registered potatoes. The officials of Pesico had initially sought damages of Rs 1.05 crore each from the farmers. Over 190 activists supported the Indian farmers and urged the union government to ask Pepsico India to draw out its “false” cases due to which the company has finally agreed to withdraw its cases against the farmers after discussions with the Indian government. Initially, Pepsico wanted to settle with the farmers by asking them either to sell their crops to Pepsi or stop growing them. But then, there was a huge social media criticism and repeated attacks by the political parties that led to pressure from its New York and Dubai offices to resolve the issue at the earliest. A Pepsico India spokesperson added in an emailed statement, “We are relying on the said discussions to find a long-term and amicable resolution of all issues around seed protection.”

Activists are now soliciting the Indian government to give more encouragement to the farmers that they can grow crops according to their needs and wishes. The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) also stated, “The government should put into clear mechanisms to avoid repetition of this episode in future and Pepsico should have apologized for the intimidation and harassment of farmers in this case.” Moreover, the Indian political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress also supported the farmers by tweeting against the company’s brazenly wrong decision to sue the farmers. Pepsico gave a statement saying that it had spent many years working with thousands of Indian farmers and was eventually impelled by the Indian government to withdraw its case against the farmers unregistered to grow its potato variety.More Visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/

Australian company Bega Cheese finally ends a long-running legal battle with American food giant Kraft by owning the exclusive rights to the well-known peanut butter jar with a yellow lid. Initially, Kraft took the Australian company to the Federal Court alleging Bega engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct over the marketing of its peanut butter.

In 2013, the US food giant’s Australian subsidiary Krafts Food Limited was renamed Mondelez Australia. Mondelez Australia traded the Kraft brand and peanut butter packaging under a license agreement and after some time, in 2017, sold the peanut butter business to Bega Cheese which began selling it in a yellow-labeled jar with a lid and a red or blue peanut butter logo. But Kraft claimed Mondelez couldn’t sell the rights to use Kraft’s peanut butter packaging as their Intellectual Property Rights were obnoxiously violated by a company who merely had a license to use it. On Wednesday, the Federal court Justice David O’ Callaghan delivered his judgment by declaring that the rights transferred to Bega were part of the sales agreement between it and Mondelez. As a result, the Australian company is now “exclusively entitled” to use the current packaging of yellow lid, and red and blue peanut label. A further hearing will be held to decide orders and discussions about damages. More Visit: http://trademarkmaldives.com/