Petra Foods to defend Nestlé claims of Kit Kat copying

Nestlé has filed a claim against Petra Foods in the High Court of Singapore. It alleges that Petra has infringed its Singapore trade marks for “2 Wafer Finger” and“4 Wafer Finger” shapes. It is also alleging unregistered trade mark and copyright infringement of Nestle’ product labels.

Petra: ‘Delfi its own unique brand’​

Petra Foods said in a statement: “The sales of the ‘Delfi Take-It’ wafer product in Singapore forms less than 0.1% of the Branded Consumer Division’s 2012 sales of US$477.7 million. Whilst not significant from an overall perspective, the company is taking the case seriously as a matter of principle and intends to defend the claims.”​

“Petra Foods’ counter argument is that ‘Delfi Take-It’ is sold under its own unique and distinctive brand name, and any pictures of wafers or other elements on the product packaging are supportive to the dressing of the product, as is commonly practiced by the industry and all major food and beverage companies and as such does not amount to either trade mark or copyright infringement.”​

Nestlé had previously been a customer of Petra Foods. Before selling its cocoa processing operations to Barry Callebaut for $950m, as announced in December last year, it was supplying Nestlé with cocoa ingredients.

Previous Kit Kat spat​

In January this year, Nestlé was successful in preventing Cadbury from thwarting its attempts to register a EU community trademark for the shape of Kit Kat four-finger.

The Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) Board of Appeals overturned an earlier decision and allowed Nestlé to register the shape as a trademark.

Cadbury, now owned by Kraft Foods spin-off Mondelez International, was ordered to pay the costs of the appeal.