Trademark
Paulaner against Berentzen: judgment in the special process expected
Are these waves or circles? And how much are the colors similar? What the trademarks between Paulaner and Berentzen is about and what a wallpaper color has to do with it.
A judgment is expected in the afternoon in the legal dispute between Paulaner and Berentzen for the design of a cola mix bottle. The Munich district court decides whether the brewery is rightly complaining that the design of the Mio 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 a quarter of a million euros.
Paulaner had the shaft design of his bottle protected in the colors yellow, orange, red, pink and purple and sees his rights violated by the design of the Emländer Berezenzerberer Berentzen. The Munich -based company also argued on the label of the mixes. And if you compare the colors with those on the Mio Mio bottle, they are sometimes not to be distinguished with the naked eye. The colors are not 100 percent identical.
Basically, the brewery argues that colors or color combinations become a brand when they are understood as proof of origin by the customer.
Waves, colors and wallpapers: What is argued about
Berentzen, which is known primarily for spirits such as “apple grain”, had argued 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 similarly designed wallpaper in the former student room of today’s marketing manager.
The Paulaner lawyer, on the other hand, considered the wallpaper to be irrelevant at the hearing in early July. 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.
Why Paulaner pulls to court
But what fears Paulans if competitors bring cola mix drinks onto the market whose bottles are similar? That would weaken your own brand, said Lars Schmidt, head of the legal department at Paulaner, recently the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. At some point, the five-color wave no longer serves as proof of origin. If you do not proceed against similar products, you undermine your own legal position and can no longer defend yourself if other manufacturers bring a visually similar product onto the market.
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
