Trademark
Paulans and Berentzen argue about special design
Is it a wave -like or just a circle? And how much are the colors like? The Munich Regional Court takes a close look at bottles in the brand dispute. A wallpaper plays a supporting role.
In the legal dispute between Paulaner and Berentzen for the design of a cola mix bottle, the outcome is relatively open almost a month before the end. “It can go out either way,” said presiding judge Vincent Mayr at the end of the hearing. On August 5, he wants to announce whether the Munich brewery rightly complains that the design of the Mio Mio Mio Cola+Orange, which is displaced by Berentzen, is too similar to that of the known special bottles.
The question is not banal, the value in dispute is at a quarter of a million and so the judges in the hall 301 of the regional court took a close look at four bottles of the two products. Paulaner had the shaft design protected from his bottle and believes that the design of Berentzen is too similar to his own. There is also a curved design on the label of the mixes and the colors are sometimes not to be distinguished with the naked eye. The colors are not 100 percent identical.
The idea should come from a wallpaper
Berentzen, on the other hand, argues that colorful design often occurs in cola mix drinks. It is absurd that the consumer in the supermarket came up with the idea because of colors and shapes that Mio million belongs to Paulaner. In addition, you have mapped circles and no waves on your bottle. The idea should come from a wallpaper in the former student room of today’s marketing manager.
The Paulaner lawyer considers the wallpaper to be irrelevant. Legally, the question of whether Berentzen has their own and older counter -rights – but they did not result from the existence of a wallpaper on the wall.
Not the first special procedure
It is not the first time that Paulaner is suing the competition because of the special design. It was only in March that the district court decided in a similar case in favor of the Munich. At that time it was about the “Brauerlimo” of the Karlsberg brewery in Homburg. At that time, the court regarded the color design as a reference to origin.
In 2022, Paulaner was a defendant in another special dispute. The smaller brewery Riegele from Augsburg had argued with the Munich people about the rights on the name and tried in vain to get license fees for the name.
dpa
Source: Stern
