Lindt savoured a victory over Haribo Wednesday in a long-running legal battle after a German federal court ruled that the chocolate teddy bears made by the Swiss giant were not a copy of the German sweets maker’s gummy bears.
“Lindt’s sale of bear-shaped chocolates wrapped in a golden foil with a red ribbon is neither a violation of Haribo’s ‘Gold Bear’ trademark nor an illegal imitation of the fruit gum products,” the court ruled.
The German candy manufacturer had taken Lindt to court in 2012 after the Swiss chocolatier began selling their “Lindt Teddy” figurines in 2012 for the Christmas season.
The Swiss company argued that the teddy bear figurines were inspired by its best-selling Easter Rabbit chocolates, which are also wrapped in a golden foil and decorated with a red ribbon and a little bell.
A German court had initially ruled in favour of Haribo but an appeal court threw out that verdict, finding that the chocolate teddies could not be mistaken for Haribo’s jelly sweets.
To end the dispute, the case was then brought to the Federal Court of Justice for a final ruling.