Mars, the maker of M&Ms and Snickers, has lost a bid at the European Union’s second-highest court to regain region-wide trademark rights over the shape of its coconut-filled Bounty chocolate bars.
The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg today said the shape of the candy bar “cannot be sufficiently distinguished from other shapes commonly used for chocolate bars.”
The ruling follows a six-year fight by the McLean, Virginia-based company to fend off German competitor Ludwig Schokolade GmbH.
Mars appealed a decision by the EU’s trademark agency that annulled its rights across the 27-nation bloc because the shape of the chocolate bar, wrapped in two rounded individual halves, “does not depart significantly from the norms and customs of the relevant sector.”
The case is the second involving candy trademarks in the last month, with the region’s top court in June ruling on Lindt & Spruengli AG’s chocolate bunnies.
Trademarks and intellectual property rights “are extremely valuable” to Mars, the company said.
“In the highly competitive world of branded goods, trademark registration of the key brand elements is part of the everyday process of ensuring that our brands remain protected effectively and that others do not unfairly trade off the goodwill created in our brands,” said Mars.
Mars got an EU-wide protection for the chocolate bar shape in 2003 from the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market, the region’s trademark agency based in Alicante, Spain.
Bloomberg