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15 November 2017Copyright

Haribo taken to court over Halloween sweets

Confectionery company Haribo has been hit with a copyright lawsuit over the packaging design of its Halloween sweets.

On Monday, November 13, Font Diner, which creates software for custom fonts, filed a claim against Haribo at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Font Diner alleged that its font software had been used without authorisation to create the packaging for “ Haribo Trick or Treat Mix” sweets.

The software company owns US copyright registration serial number TX 6-589-427, called “Computer programs for a lunch box font collection”.

The copyright contains eleven computer programs, including the Stovetop typeface font software, which was allegedly used on the sweet packaging.

According to the claim: “The natural, probable, and foreseeable result of defendant’s wrongful conduct has been and continues to be to deprive plaintiff of the benefits and revenue from the sale of appropriate licences to use the font software in the manners complained of herein.”

Font Diner said that a licence upgrade is required for the commercial, for-profit use of its software.

The company added it believes that a company called Galaxy Creative was commissioned by Haribo to provide graphic design services for the creation of the sweet packaging.

Although Galaxy Creative purchased a basic licence to the software, it had not purchased a licence upgrade.

Galaxy Creative was not a party to the action because the company has been dissolved, the complaint added.

Font Diner believes the damages and profits it is entitled to are $150,000. The company is also seeking injunctive relief and destruction of the packaging and the font software in Haribo’s possession.

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Trademarks
2 October 2018   Haribo has successfully prevented a figurative trademark which would have been confused with the confectionery company’s earlier-registered Danish mark from being registered.