After six years of litigation, beverage manufacturer Red Bull has failed to use the blue and silver color combinations exclusively for its energy drink. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected the appeal against the judgment of the first instance, European lawyer Franz Leidenmühler from the University of Linz today confirmed a report in the „Oberösterreichische Volksblatt“.
Already on November 30, the beverage manufacturer Red Bull, headquartered in Fuschl, filed an action for annulment before the EU Court of First Instance for the color combination of blue and silver as an EU trademark for energy drinks. The Polish company Optimum Mark filed an opposition against the trademark with the EU Intellectual Property Office.
The Office had declared the color combination as a trade mark in 2013, in 2014 the decision was confirmed. The reason was that the two color marks were not sufficiently precise and uniform, because they allowed a wide variety of combinations of the two colors, which gave a very different overall impression. Red Bull had challenged and lost these annulments before the EU court. On top of that, the company had filed an appeal with the ECJ, which was rejected by the High Court on 29 July.
