Oatly sues UK gluten-free farm over rebrand
Swedish dairy alternative brand Oatly is suing a UK competitor for trademark infringement at the English High Court.
Oatly claims Cambridgeshire-based Glebe Farm Foods rebranded its oat-based drink as Pure Oaty in 2020 in order to capitalise on the Swedish company’s reputation.
Fresh from a public offering on the New York Stock Exchange last week, Oatly is seeking an injunction and damages in a two-day trial set to conclude in London today, June 10.
“Glebe Farm’s intention was to bring Oatly’s products to mind and thereby to benefit from the huge power of attraction and reputation of Oatly’s branding,” the Swedish company told the court. As well as the name, Oatly also cites Pure Oaty’s packaging, including the colour blue and the image of a cup.
Glebe Farm claims its Pure Oaty brand is intended to recall the concepts of “purity and oatiness”, rather than its rival. The only elements common to both products’ packaging are “generic”, the gluten-free farm claimed, and nothing that Oatly “can fairly call [its] own”.
Oatly’s last high-profile trademark dispute was a win over the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in 2019. The Swedish brand won the right to register its ‘It’s Like Milk But Made For Humans’ slogan as an EU trademark after the EU General Court overturned the EUIPO’s initial refusal.
The EUIPO had found the slogan to be lacking distinctiveness and incapable of indicating the commercial origin of the goods in question. But the General Court ruled that the mark “calls into question the commonly accepted idea that milk is a key element of the human diet,” making it easy to remember.
The court also rejected the EUIPO’s finding that the mark was ineligible for trademark protection because it was a “laudatory” promotional slogan, finding instead that: “The laudatory connotation of a word mark does not mean that it cannot be appropriate for the purposes of guaranteeing to consumers the origin of the goods or services which it covers.”
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
