Lindt chocolate bunnies notch another legal victory
Lindt has launched numerous legal suits to protect its best-selling Goldhasen range.
Keystone / Walter Bieri
A Munich court has banned a confectionary maker from producing a range of chocolate bunnies that infringe on the patent rights of Swiss company Lindt & Sprüngli.
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Os coelhinhos de chocolate Lindt marcam outra vitória legal
Germany’s Allgäuer Confiserie Heilemann drew protests from Lindt with its chocolate bunny design wrapped in gold foil. The Swiss company complained that they looked too similar to its own best-selling confectionary range.
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The companies are fighting legal battles on several fronts in an effort to keep their products exclusive. This struggle is a common but unwanted side effect of success in a hyper-competitive market, according to brand consultant Peter Lux. “Brand protection is a growing activity of all companies which have, or believe they have, something to…
This prompted a Munich court on Thursday to reverse a previous ruling in favour of the Allgäuer Confiserie Heilemann range.
The new verdict threatens the parent company Thüringer Viba with a €250,000 (CHF248,000) fine if it continues to infringe Lindt’s trademark rights.
But the legal case threatens to drag on as the German courts have not accepted all of Lindt’s legal complaints.
The Swiss company sells 150 million of its gold wrapped ‘Goldhasen’ bunnies in 50 markets and has launched legal action in other countries.
Lindt’s chocolate bunnies have been sold in Germany since 1952 and using the same colour of foil since 1997. The Heilemann bunny first appeared on supermarket shelves in 2018.
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Lindt wins battle of the chocolate bunnies
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Lindt & Sprüngli’s foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies deserve protection from copycat products, Switzerland’s highest court has ruled.
Legal victory for Lindt in German chocolate bunny case
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The Federal Court of Justice delivered its verdict on Thursday in a battle between Lindt and German company Heilemann, which in 2018 also marketed a chocolate bunny in a gold foil wrap. Lindt claimed it had a trademark on the colour, acquired by use, and that Heilemann had infringed this trademark and should be prevented…
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In creating the court, based in St Gallen since January 1, the authorities want to simplify and speed up the system not only for Swiss companies and foreign multinationals based in Switzerland, but also for companies based abroad. It operates in Switzerland’s three official languages – German, French and Italian – but the language of…
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