Lindt beaten in bunny battle
T was an unwelcome Easter gift for Swiss chocolate-maker Lindt & Sprüngli, whose chocolate eggs and gold-foil wrapped bunnies are highly popular in South Africa and across the world.
On Thursday, Lindt lost a long-running court battle to protect its Easter bunnies from imitation by a German rival.
Lindt, which traces its origins to a Zurich confectionery shop set up in the 1840s, has been fighting German chocolate-maker Confiserie Riegelein since 2000 to try to stop it producing similar chocolate bunnies.
But on Thursday, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice rejected a final appeal by Lindt & Sprüngli.
“We are very glad that this case has found a happy ending for us after some 12 years,” said Peter Riegelein, head of the family-owned German business. “The sitting goldwrapped bunny has been a firm part of our offering for at least a half-century,” he said. “Now it is finally clear that it can stay as it is.”
A Lindt spokeswoman said the company was disappointed but would continue to defend its “strong ” brand.
This is only the most recent defeat for Lindt. Last year, the European Union Court of Justice upheld a decision of the EU trademarks agency OHIM, which rejected Lindt’s application for a trademark of its sitting bunny shapes wrapped in gold foil with a red ribbon bow-tie.
Earlier last year, however, an Austrian court ruled that family-owned rival Hauswirth could no longer produce Easter bunnies that look like those made by Lindt. — Reuters