Brand wars over cats' paws
How closely can a gummy bear resemble a chocolate one? Find the answers to this and other important questions in our picture gallery.
Fruity feud
In a legal battle reminiscent of David's quarrel with Goliath, tech giant Apple took an unassuming café in Bonn, Germany, to court over the similarity of their logos. Luckily for the baristas, the unfavorable media coverage about the suit forced Apple to abandon its pursuit.
Bear blues
Both boast a golden hue, a cuddly shape and are sweet in taste but Haribo's gummy bears and their chocolate counterparts from Lindt have left both sides locked in an increasingly sour battle. Haribo's contention? Lindt's bears look too much like their own. A final court decision is still pending.
Iconoclast
The TV channel Sky has enjoyed trademark protection for its name for a while. But once the Internet chat service Skype began jostling for the same recognition for its brand, the folks from Sky wasted no time taking them to court. The judges' decision vindicated the broadcasters - they found there was a significant liklihood that consumers could confuse the two.
Pudding palaver
The dispute over cow spots - yes, cow spots - dragged on for months. It was "Paula" vs. "Flecki," a proxy war between two much larger belligerents, Dr. Oetker and Aldi. The courts eventually decided that the devil was in the details: "Paula" had a bunch of small spots while "Flecki" had one big one. In the end, Dr. Oetker relented.
Problematic paws
The German daily "taz" has had its logo since 1979 but never thought to lock it down in trademark law. That is, until Jack Wolfskin came along in 1983. The apparel maker came up with its own paw logo and a cat-fight ensued that was eventually peacefully resolved by a court. Jack Wolfskin kept its paws on jackets and backpacks and "taz" got claim over anything printed.
Oh, those animals!
Another paws for thought: this next trademark battle pits pumas against poodles - poodles that bear a strong resemblance to pumas, that is. The sporting goods giant Puma sued a designer from Hamburg over a satirical shirt he had created depicting the silhouette of a lapdog in the same pose as Puma's logo. Predictably perhaps, the puma won.
"Leggo my Lego!"
Whether it's their nobby heads or their hollow legs, Lego figures have a special character. That's why the European Court of Justice recently rejected a complaint by the Danish toy company's British competitors, Best-Lock. Luckily for the Danes, they filed for patent protection of their popular yellow figures in 2000.
Typical, yes, but unique?
Buy a stuffed animal from the luxury toymaker Steiff and you'll notice that all of the company's tags can be found buttoned to the middle of their plush creations' ears. That may be typical of Steiff products, but it's not unique enough for a customer to associate in-ear tags with the company, according to a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice.
Shades of yellow
In 2014, Germany's Langenscheidt publishing house emerged victorious from a dispute over its claim to ... the color yellow. As a result of that ruling, the maker of the language learning software Rosetta Stone may no longer distribute its products in yellow packaging because the color is too easily associated with the yellow exteriors of Langenscheidt's dictionaries.
Shades of blue
In 2013, the maker of Dove soap, Unilever, won a major victory over Beiersdorf - its German competitor that produces Nivea cosmetics in those famous little blue tins. But therein lay the problem - the tins may be famous, they're just not famous enough. At least 75 percent of the population must associate a brand with a certain color for a firm to lay claim to it. Nivea didn't make the cut.