CADBURY
Cadbury has been registered in the UK for chocolate and confectionery since John Cadbury opened his shop in Birmingham in 1824. The brand famously attempted to trademark the colour purple (Pantone 2685C) for chocolate, succeeding initially in 2008 before Nestlé's legal challenge resulted in the Court of Appeal overturning the registration in 2013 — a landmark UK trademark case on the registrability of single colours.
UK IPO Record
Brand History & Trademark Analysis
Cadbury has been registered in the UK for chocolate and confectionery since John Cadbury opened his shop in Birmingham in 1824. The brand famously attempted to trademark the colour purple (Pantone 2685C) for chocolate, succeeding initially in 2008 before Nestlé's legal challenge resulted in the Court of Appeal overturning the registration in 2013 — a landmark UK trademark case on the registrability of single colours.
The brand famously attempted to trademark the colour purple (Pantone 2685C) for chocolate, succeeding initially in 2008 before Nestlé's legal challenge resulted in the Court of Appeal overturning the registration in 2013 — a landmark UK trademark case on the registrability of single colours.
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Historical Background
Cadbury adopted purple as its corporate colour in 1905 as a tribute to Queen Victoria. The company registered Pantone 2685C for chocolate packaging in 1995. Nestle contested the registrations, leading to over a decade of litigation. In 2019, the UK Intellectual Property Office invalidated two earlier registrations but granted one new trademark for the colour purple applied to the whole visible surface of packaging — making it a landmark case in UK colour trademark law.