The Colour Purple

The colour purple has been in contention for 11 years since Cadbury first made a claim to trade mark it in 1998, a move opposed by Darrell Lea. The deep purple of the Cadbury packaging is immediately associated with the company and has been allowed in terms of the block and boxed chocolate packaging of Cadbury but the two companies continue to duke it out in court regarding the colour purple itself.

Cadbury says that Darrell Lea should not be using the colour purple (in any shade) in store signage, uniforms or products. It states that the use of the colour purple amounts to misleading and deceptive conduct which is covered under the Trade Practices Act.

Darrell Lea has used a variety of different shades of purple over the years in their stores and products, something objectionable by Cadbury and the Federal Court has previously dismissed such a claim in April 2007, ruling against the chocolate giant.

Darrell Lea had yet another victory on 5 February when the Federal Court of Australia dismissed the first of 17 grounds of appeal filed by Cadbury. The further grounds of appeal will be heard on March 2, 3 and 4.

While Cadbury has an arguable contention specifically for the shade of purple used on their packaging, it does not follow that a consumer would be mistaken in any way on whether they were purchasing Darrell Lea or Cadbury chocolate.

Whether a Darrell Lea product is purple or not does not make me think of it as a Cadbury product. Consumers in general are probably more likely to associate the colour blue with Darrell Lea than with the deep purple colour on the packaging and advertisement of Cadbury products. Darrell Lea does use purple in their product packaging, but the shade is certainly different.

Cadbury is well within their rights to attempt to trade mark the shade of purple that has now long been associated with their products but to attempt to trade mark purple as a colour rather than just that specific shade (which they have had some success with judging by the trade mark on their packaging) seems to be taking it a bit far.

It will be interesting however to see how the other 16 grounds of appeal pan out for Cadbury.

Source: AAP