CHOCOLATE bar KitKat is to be stripped of its EU-wide protected trademark status, because it is not well known enough in some countries, including Ireland.
The EU intellectual property office granted trademark status to Nestlé’s four-finger shape in 2006.
However confectionary rival Mondelēz International, previously known as Cadbury Schweppes, filed a challenge a year later.
According to the Guardian, the treat could now lose its trademark status after Nestlé failed to show the bar was sufficiently well known across all EU member states – a requirement for the trademark to be valid.
The company produced evidence that the chocolate was sufficiently well known in Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and the UK.
However they failed to provide evidence that it was well known in Ireland, Belgium, Greece and Portugal.
The decision by Melchior Wathelet, advocate general at the European Court of Justice, could mean the KitKat shape may be open to imitation by competitors.
A spokesperson for Nestlé disputed the findings, saying they produced enough evidence to prove distinctiveness, “including in the few countries where evidence was challenged”.
