As Easter has just been, you might be surprised to hear that anyone is still thinking of chocolate, let alone in the context of Intellectual Property. But aside from making excellent chocolates, chocolatiers such as Lindt, Guylian, and Cadbury have secured extensive IP rights associated with their brands.
Branding is an essential aspect of any business, especially for companies seeking to stand out in a populated market. The IP associated with a brand can refer to trade names, logos, trade dress, trade marks, and design rights. Protecting your brand from its inception is a useful way to ensure you retain market share for the products or services you offer.
An example of a well-protected and established brand is the Lindt gold bunny. Lindt holds Australian trade marks for the shape and colour of their iconic chocolate bunny with gold packaging and a red ribbon as shown by the image below. Lindt also holds this trade mark in various jurisdictions overseas.
Image: Lidl (Left), Lindt (Right)
Lindt have been successful in preventing overseas infringement of their gold bunny by supermarket Lidl. In asserting Lidl’s infringement, Lindt provided surveys showing that the gold bunny is well known to consumers as a product of Lindt. At hearing, it was held that while there are differences between the bunnies, consumers were likely to be confused by the two gold bunnies. Consequently, Lidl was required to destroy their packaging.
Did you know?
Kings can help you by offering trade mark registration services and protect your IP in other ways such as through design registration.
It is not always smooth sailing protecting your brand. In 2007, Guylian was unsuccessful in registering their seahorse chocolate shape in Australia.
