Unusual Trade Marks

Numerous different types of words, phrases names, slogans, logos, however recently unusual trade marks such as colors have now been trademarked.

The major confectionary business Cadburys has registered a Trade Mark for the color purple, preventing any other confectionary businesses from branding their products in purple. The confectionary company (Cadburys) has registered the Trade Mark to prevent misperception of Cadburys products with any other products, in addition to maintaining a distinctive brand.

Despite Cadburys registering a Trade Mark for the color purple, the largest food company in the world (Nestle), has infringed the Trade Mark Act of 1994, by branding their confectionary product with a purple background. This led to legal conflict among Cadburys and Nestle in 2008, when Nestle first oppose Cadburys initial trademark application.

Approximately a year Prior to the legal conflict among Cadburys and Nestle, Cadburys won a legal case to prevent other confectionary firms from using the color. Regard of this, in 2014 the court had come to a verdict that Nestle had won the appeal as the UK Court said: "Cadbury's formulation does not comply with the requirements for [trademark] registration,”, in addition to lacking clarity. In response Cadburys said, “Our color purple has been linked with Cadbury for a century and the British public has grown up understanding its link with our chocolate.

In conclusion, peculiarly Nestle were victorious in the legal conflict among Cadburys, enabling them to continue marketing their confectionary product with the color purple, even though a much smaller corporation did the equivalent to Nestle’s actions, however receive an entirely different verdict.

By Manpreet Taak