Popular Australian peanut butter brand Bega wins a huge victory over American giant Kraft and will be able to keep using its trademark lids
- Bega bought the company and kept the branding colours for the peanut butter
- Kraft took the Australian company to court and argued they mislead consumers
- The court disagreed with Kraft and allowed Bega to continue using the branding
Australian brand Bega has won a second victory over the use of trademark yellow lids on its peanut butter jars in a battle against US food giant Kraft.
Kraft appealed last year’s Federal Court decision awarding Bega exclusive rights to use the yellow lid plus the red and blue peanut labels.
The Federal Court dismissed the challenge on Tuesday.
When Bega bought the company, it kept the branding colours but ran ads stating ‘Kraft peanut butter is now Bega peanut butter’.
The American company claimed it was misleading to consumers but the appeal judges disagreed.
Kraft appealed last year’s Federal Court decision awarding Bega exclusive rights to use the yellow lid plus the red and blue peanut labels (stock image)
The fight over product image and copyright ownership was sparked during a series of takeovers in 2017.
The Kraft company was bought by Heinz and the Australian products, including peanut butter, moved under the Mondelez umbrella that was bought by Bega.
Though the peanut butter would now be sold by Bega, the company decided to keep the branding as it was already recognised by customers.
Kraft claimed Mondelez only had a license to use the packaging which expired in December 2017 and could not sell the rights to Bega.
That claim was rejected in May 2019 after the court found Bega had acquired all the rights to use the trademark colours when the company bought the assets.
Kraft tried to appeal the decision in 2020, but that was also rejected.
‘Even if there were a possibility that some reasonable consumers would be confused about the change in brands, conduct that merely causes confusion is not misleading or deceptive,’ justices Lindsay Foster, Mark Moshinsky and Michael O’Bryan wrote in their decision.
When Bega bought the company, it kept the branding colours but ran ads stating ‘Kraft peanut butter is now Bega peanut butter.’ However, on Tuesday, the Federal Court dismissed the challenge