Advertisement
Facebook/Haribo
sweet deposition

Lindt has beaten Haribo in a bitter court battle over gummy bears

Haribo argued that Lindt’s bear-shaped chocolates infringed on their gummy bear.

LINDT HAVE SAVOURED a sweet victory in a long-running legal battle with Haribo over teddy bear shaped sweets

A German federal court has now ruled that the chocolate teddy bears made by the Swiss giant were not a copy of the German sweets maker’s gummy bears.

“Lindt’s sale of bear-shaped chocolates wrapped in a golden foil with a red ribbon is neither a violation of Haribo’s ‘Gold Bear’ trademark nor an illegal imitation of the fruit gum products,” the court ruled.

The German sweet manufacturer had taken Lindt to court in 2012 after the Swiss chocolatier began selling their “Lindt Teddy” figurines in 2012 for the Christmas season.

The Swiss company argued that the teddy bear figurines were inspired by its best-selling Easter Rabbit chocolates, which are also wrapped in a golden foil and decorated with a red ribbon and a little bell.

A German court had initially ruled in favour of Haribo but a appeal court threw out that verdict, finding that the chocolate teddies could not be mistaken for Haribo’s jelly sweets.

To end the dispute, the case was then brought to the Federal Court of Justice for a final ruling.

© – AFP 2015

Read: Google files a patent for robot toys that will listen and talk to you >

Read: Airbus patents jet that could fly from Dublin to New York in under an hour >

Your Voice
Readers Comments
13
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.