The Federal Court has ruled in favour of Bega after a trademark battle against Kraft ensued. The court stated that the company’s signature yellow lids on its peanut butter jars belonged to the brand and that the company had exclusive rights to use the yellow lid as well its red and blue labels.
The decision is a huge blow for Kraft who can no longer sell its famous peanut butter in it yellow jars. What makes it worse is that Kraft was the original owners of the Bega peanut butter.
Kraft transferred its Australian operations to Mondelez in 2012. Bega purchased the peanut butter factory and recipe from Mondelez in 2017 for $460 million. As part of the deal Bega was not allowed to use the Kraft name and so quickly changed it to Bega.
Kraft took Bega to court arguing that the Bega jars were too similar to Kraft’s peanut butter jars and that the “trade dress” was not included in the deal. However, the judge disagreed with Kraft stating that the “trade dress” had been fairly bought by Bega.
