Lindt's chocolate bunnies shimmer golden yellow on all supermarket shelves.
This is not only nice to look at, as the naive customer might think, but is part of the unmistakable brand strategy of the Swiss manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli.
And the Federal Court of Justice gave this branding strategy a significant boost on Thursday: the golden hue enjoys brand protection, the Karlsruhe judges decided on Thursday.
Corinna Budras
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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From a legal point of view, of course, that sounds more sober.
The chocolate manufacturer has proven that the gold tone of the Lindt rabbit "within the public involved" has achieved "traffic approval for chocolate rabbits" as a brand.
In other words: the gold bunny is a constant for our valued customers.
The company convinced the Karlsruhe judges in extensive market analyzes: 70 percent of customers associate the sight of gold foil with the Lindt rabbit.
That is far more than the 50 percent required for such purposes.
Fight against the competitors
In the fight against competitors who want to build on Lindt's success with similar-looking gold bunnies, this is no small matter.
With a market share of 40 percent, Lindt's gold bunny is by far the best-selling chocolate easter bunny in Germany.
The population is increasing rapidly: the company has sold more than half a billion of these specimens in the past 30 years.
It has been wrapped in gold foil since 1952, and this gold tone has remained unchanged since 1994.
Two years ago, Confiserie Heilemann in Unterallgäu also launched a chocolate Easter bunny in gold-colored foil on the market.
Lindt, well versed in trademark disputes, went to court and insisted on his trademark rights.
Not everything has been decided yet
"Lindt-Sprüngli has not yet won the case," says Andrea Schlaffge, trademark lawyer at Hengeler Mueller in Düsseldorf. The Federal Court of Justice has referred the matter to the Munich Higher Regional Court. The Munich judges now have to check whether the irritated customer is actually mistaking the Heilemann rabbit for the Lindt rabbit. "Only then can a trademark infringement be assumed," says Schlaffge.
The lawyer reminds that the hurdles for the protection of so-called abstract color trademarks are very high. "This should only be possible with products that a company has sold on a large scale for decades, because in the eyes of consumers, colors are initially seen as a decorative accessory and not as a brand." Lindt & Sprüngli, in any case, is this proof of their Lindt -Gold bunnies succeeded (Ref .: I ZR 139/20).