The European Court of Justice has thrown out an appeal by the chocolate bar's maker, Nestlé, which argued that it owns the shape of the teatime treat.
Nestlé has spent more than a decade fighting to trademark the four-fingered wafer shape - something that rival Cadbury had fought hard against.
But Wednesday's judgement found that a previous court had been right to annul the decision by Europe's trademark group.
That could bring an end to the snack's protected European status - and a saga that has proved expensive for both sides.
It also takes the pressure off identical treats like Norway's Kvikk Lunsj - pronounced "quick lunch" and which has been around for 80 years - and opens the door to own-brand imitations at your local supermarket.
[...] Nestlé said that Wednesday's judgement was "not the end of the case" and that it believed the EU trademark office will side with the company anyway.
"We think the evidence proves that the familiar shape of our iconic four-finger Kit Kat is distinctive enough to be registered as an EU trademark," a spokesman said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44939819
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Sunday July 29 2018, @04:14PM
Its interesting there's no statute of limitations, where kit kat has been selling locally for 81 years while the competition they're trying to make illegal has been selling locally for 79 therefore by the magic of globalism the 79 year old product should now be illegal.
With a weird side dish, of I'm no big junk food eater, but a couple years ago I saw "big kat" for sale where its just one big bar instead of the four trapezoids and I'm like WTF why? So I guess if you're in danger of losing your trademarked shape, its time to try innovation as a last ditch method.
At first, an amusing way to fight this would have been for the Norway company to go all origin location, much like its illegal to call a Parmesagn-like cheese not made in certain provinces in Italy a "Parmigiano-Reggiano", then it should be illegal to describe a candy as "Kit Kat" in Euro-land if not manufactured in York in the UK. Then I googled, and humorously it seems Kit Kats are still mostly made in York although there are factories in Germany and Bulgaria that might be contaminating Euro-land with non-York kit kat bars.