Cadbury Now Owns This Color

It took a three-year battle, but Cadbury has finally won the official rights to its historic purple color. The candy company had the color, pantone 2865c, trademarked in 2008, but Nestle said the color wasn’t unique enough to deserve a trademark. Now UK officials have ruled that the shade indeed boasts enough "distinctive character" to deserve the honor, the Independent reports. Cadbury says it "jealously" protects the color, whose use is now "iron-clad," says a lawyer.

"Color registrations are notoriously difficult to obtain," since it’s hard to show "that the color has become synonymous with the brand in the mind of the consumer," she tells the Independent. Still, Nestle points out that it’s an “interim decision”—one which the Cadbury rival could appeal. Cadbury has only won the trademark for its chocolate bars and chocolate drinks, not all its sweets. So "both sides have achieved a measure of success, Cadbury more so than Nestle," says an official. Cadbury has been using the color since 1914, Adweek notes. (More Cadbury stories.)