Trademark – From an International Perspective: Chocolate manufacturer Ritter wins out over Milka in trademark battle of square-shaped chocolate in Germany

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Ritter Sport wins out over Milka in battle of square-shaped chocolate bars
3D Shapes & Chocolate – Square.
Practically. Good. Protected by trademarks
Trademark – from an international perspective:
This summer a chocolate trademark dispute was resolved in Germany. Here’s the digest.
Bundesgerichtshof, (BGH, The Federal Supreme Court) in Karlsruhe ruled in favor of
chocolate manufacturer Ritter ending ten years of legal battles with rival brand Milka
(Mondelēz) over square packaging (Quadratische Verpackung für Ritter-Sport-Schokolade
bleibt als Marke geschützt).
Ritter had the famous square shape of its Ritter Sport chocolate protected as a trademark in
2001. For decades Ritter has also marketed its chocolate bars with the slogan "Quadritsch,
practical, gut" - quality, chocolate, squared, as Ritter likes to translate it. Milka challenged
Ritter's German monopoly marketing a square bar in 2010, as they believed that any chocolate
manufacturer should be allowed to sell square-shaped chocolate.
BGH had to decide what role the shape of the package plays for consumers. Is the purchasing
decision largely determined by the square packaging? If so, other manufacturers would also
be allowed to sell chocolate in the shape of a square.

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A form of packaging can in principle be protected, but a brand cannot claim protection if it
consists solely of a form that gives the product "an essential value". BGH decided that Ritter
Sport was different. Consumers considered the square nature of the chocolate as an indication
of both where the chocolate came from and its quality. The shape did not give the product any
additional value that could influence buyers to choose it over other chocolates. There was no
artistic value to the shape and it did not lead to differences in price.
Ritter Sport retains trademark rights to square shape and is now the sole top-brand square-
shaped chocolate in Germany.
Published on September 3, 2020
Leonard Neno Milenkovic, LL.M European IP Law