A Battle Royal over Blue

Blue, like beauty, is apparently in the eyes of the beholder. Beiersdorf AG won a ruling from Germany’s top court that gives it a second chance to defend a trademark for the blue color on its Nivea products in an ongoing fight with Unilever NV. The Federal Court of Justice last week ordered a new hearing in a suit by Unilever challenging the national trademark Beiersdorf owns for the color. The top judges sent the case back to the Munich-based Federal Patent Court.


According to the latest ruling, the patent court established an overly strict standard when it ruled for Unilever, saying the color could only gain intellectual property protection when 75% of consumers associate it with Nivea products. Rather, that figure should be lowered to 50%, the judges said.


The suit is part of an old dispute between the two companies over colors used in their competing Dove and Nivea brands. A related case filed by Hamburg, Germany-based Beiersdorf against Unilever is still pending at the top court.


“Since 1925, the color Nivea-Blue stands for the trademark values of Nivea. The blue tin is the ‘face’ of the brand and the basis of the global design language of the Nivea products,” said Inken Hollmann-Peters, a Beiersdorf spokeswoman. “That’s why we leave nothing untried to protect the iconic color image.”


Still, Unilever said the ruling backed its decision to file the lawsuit because the court confirmed the trademark covered too wide a spectrum of products. Unilever expects the patent court to reinstate the original decision following the new trial, said Merlin Koene, a spokesman for the London- and Rotterdam-based company.


Beiersdorf’s consumer group, mostly comprising creams and related Nivea products, accounted for 83% of the company’s revenue. The Nivea name itself wasn’t at issue in the ruling, which only dealt with the light blue color used on its packaging and marketing.