Lidl ordered to destroy its Lindt-like chocolate bunnies by Swiss court

Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose/The GuardianThe foil-wrapped chocolate bunny made by premium chocolate maker Lindt & Sprüngli is celebrating a legal victory, after Switzerland’s highest court ruled that it deserves protection from copycat products, including one made by Lidl.

The federal court in Lausanne has ordered the German discount retailer to stop selling its version of the rabbit-shaped confectionery and to destroy all its remaining stock. Lindt’s chocolate bunny – wrapped in gold-coloured foil, sporting a red ribbon and small bell, and sitting in a squatting posture – is sold in various sizes and is one of the Swiss brand’s bestselling products, particularly aroundThe federal court’s ruling overturned one made last year by a Swiss commercial court, which found against Lindt.

The court ruled that destruction of Lidl’s stock of bunnies was “proportionate, especially as it does not necessarily mean that the chocolate as such would have to be destroyed”, it said in a summary of its verdict, suggesting they could be melted down and reused somehow.. Lindt has been to court multiple times in recent years to protect its popular treat, of which it sells tens of millions each year.

The company applied for a trademark on the three-dimensional shape of its bunny in 2000, which was granted the following year., the European court of justice, after a long battle between Lindt and Austrian rival chocolate maker Hauswirth, which also made gold-wrapped chocolate rabbits with a ribbon around its neck.

‘Ruling on trademark case suggests German retailer could melt down and reuse the offending rabbits’. Trademarks is truly where the jokers of IP law live.

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