Cadbury wins court battle to keep iconic purple colour

Cadbury chocolate has won a court battle to have exclusive rights to use the colour purple in its dairy milk packaging.

Nestle has been trying to stop the chocolate maker from obtaining the exclusive rights since 2008.

Cadbury claimed an exclusive right to package its products in a shade of purple known as Pantone 2685C, which it argued had acquired a distinctive character since it first wrapped a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk in 1914.

The Swiss confectioner Nestle challenged the trade mark application before a Registra of Trade Marks and tried to sue in the High Court in London.

Nestle claimed that purple was not a registrable colour.

Judge Birss said the Registrar had accepted that the familiar shade of purple had become linked with Cadbury's chocolate in the public mind for more than 90 years.

He also ruled that colours are, as a matter of law, "capable of being signs."