Cadbury loses battle on its Purple Color

In what could have been one of the biggest blows to Cadbury in recent times, after a bitter five year battle with rivals, the Swiss company of Nestle, Cadbury has lost its trademark purple color (Pantone 2865c) on an assortment of products.

The purple color, which makes the Cadbury’s chocolate bars packaging distinctive from other chocolate brands was introduced in year 1914 as a tribute to Queen Victoria. Purple was Queen Victoria’s favorite color. The full range of Cadbury’s chocolates became purple and gold in the year 1920. Cadbury’s chocolate company has been bought over by the American Kraft Foods Group Inc., but continues to sell their chocolates under the Cadbury’s and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk brand names.

Cadbury, the famous chocolate manufacturer, applied to register a trade mark (No. 2 376 879) for the color purple (Pantone 2685C) "applied to the whole visible surface, or being the predominant color applied to the whole visible surface, of the packaging of the goods" for goods in Class 30, namely "chocolate in bar and tablet form" and other miscellaneous chocolate products. Nestle opposed the application.  (Paragraph source: http://ipkitten.blogspot.in/2012/11/the-color-purple-cadbury-v-nestle.html)

In a bitter court battle with rivals nestle the point raised by nestle was whether Cadbury's mark was a "sign capable of being represented graphically", with Nestlé's contention that the color purple was not (1) "a sign" and was not (2) "capable of being represented graphically" and therefore, could not be registered under Section 3(1)(a) of the Trade Marks Act 1994. The court case turned on a technicality and whether the language used by Cadbury in an application to trademark the color had been clear. The three Court of Appeal judges decided it had not and therefore denied the confectionery company’s attempt to claim exclusive use of it.

The implications include that not only rivals nestle, who brought about the lawsuit, but any other brand can use the ‘Cadbury Purple’ color on the packaging of their products. It also means that other ‘assortment’ of Cadbury products do not have the exclusive rights to use the color Pantone 2685C. However, the company is adamant that it intends to file a lawsuit against any company which infringes the rights of the brand or produces confusing or similar looking products.

Lady Gaga threatens to sue the brand Gaga Jeans

Lady Gaga is on a warpath and how! Lady Gaga threatens to sue designer Philip Scotts Gaga Jeans for using the word ‘Gaga’ in it.

Designer Philip Scott‘s “sexitized easy access jeans”, is a yet to be launched brand of jeans which is based upon a patented technology of using the zipper on the crotch area of the garment. The brand will launch around fall and would be a made to order brand of jeans which would retail roughly around $10,000 a piece (yes you have read it right).

In a legal letter dated October 1, 2013, the attorneys have stated that the brand has misappropriated the dominant feature of the mark, GAGA, and merely added the generic term “jeans.”The use of the word  GAGAJEANS  is likely to cause confusion, mistake, and deception of consumers that Lady Gaga is affiliated with or has sponsored, endorsed, or is otherwise associated with the jeans.”

As such, her attorneys demand that Scott abandon his trademark request, deactivate his website, cease and desist making the jeans, destroy any prototypes, cease advertising the jeans, provide a full accounting of any sales so far, and confirm in writing that he will not seek to register any trademarks similar to Lady Gaga’s name. (source: http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2013/10/on-the-warpath-lady-gaga-threatens-legal-action-to-stop-production-of-easy-access-jeans-bearing-her-name/)

The designer said that he has done nothing wrong. “All I know is that I applied for the trademark Gagajeans and when they did the trademark search it showed that no one was using it and that I could apply for it,” he wrote in a response to Gaga’s legal letter.

He insists, “I have never in any comments or actions tried to fool anyone into believing Lady Gaga is in any way connected to or associated with Gagajeans.”

On checking the website for Gaga jeans, however, it has been revealed that the designer has now changed the name of his brand to Pheiress Jeans, but stated that the decision has been taken after a survey taken by the brand on their website and most of the visitors pointing out that Gaga jeans does not do justice to describe how sexy the jeans are, and that although he likes the word Gagajeans, it’s the opinion of the people who endorse the brand that counts.  (More information about the brand can be seen at the link http://www.pheiress.com/)

WIPO Magazine Article; Perspectives on Design

Indian Design educator and former Director NID, Dr. Darlie Koshy along with Argentinian designer Adrián Cohan, and South African design activist and founder of Design Indaba, Ravi Naidoo, came together at WIPO's Innovation by Design Forum in May 2013 to highlight the huge potential of design as a driver of innovation and wealth creation.
The article can be found on the following link:
http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2013/04/article_0008.html

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