Label battle: Paulaner wins in dispute against Karlsberg brewery
The Paulaner brewery has won an important victory in the battle over the Design of its cola orange lemonade "Spezi". A Munich court ruled in favor of the company, which had filed a lawsuit against the Karlsberg brewery because its "Brauerlimo" allegedly looked too similar to the Paulaner product.
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Focus on the label
The design of the two lemonades is seen as the central point of contention. The Paulaner brewery argued that consumers could confuse the labels of the two products. On Tuesday, the 33rd Civil Chamber of Munich Regional Court I ruled in favor of Paulaner and prohibited the Karlsberg brewery from using the "colorful product presentation" of its "Brauerlimo".
Protective effect under trademark law
The court found that the "five-color wave" that Paulaner uses for its Spezi is protected under trademark law. The color design of the "Brauerlimo" takes up a significant part of the packaging and gives consumers the impression of an independent label.
Advertisements and market behavior
In addition, the court emphasized that the Karlsberg brewery not only uses the disputed colors on the bottles, but also in large-format advertisements. At the hearing, Paulaner also alleged that the label of the "Brauerlimo" was deliberately designed in such a way as to align itself with the market leader.
However, the ruling is not yet legally binding and could possibly be challenged on appeal.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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