Nestlé loses Kit Kat court case

Pretoria - Chocolate lovers who want to “have a break” and “have a Kit Kat” will buy the Nestlé-produced wafer chocolate, and will not confuse it with the wafer snack, Tiffany Break.

This is according to a Pretoria High Court judgment, which found that the company manufacturing the Tiffany Break chocolate was not infringing on the decades old trademark belonging to Nestlé.

Nestlé asked the court to find that United Arab Emirates company Iffco, which distributes the Tiffany Break, infringed on its trademark rights as the four-fingered and two-fingered wafer chocolates appeared to be similar.

This, Nestlé said, could confuse the consumer into believing the two products were somehow related.

They also objected to the fact that the word “break” appeared on the wrapper, claiming consumers could associate it with Kit Kat.

But Judge Andre Louw was not persuaded by these arguments and turned down Nestlé’s application.

Kit Kat, which has been around for more than 50 years, comes in a predominately red-and-white wrapper, while Tiffany Break has a blue wrapper with red-and-white writing on it. The latter’s four-finger snack comes out in a 31g wafer and is about R2 cheaper than the 45g four-finger Kit Kat.

Judge Louw said consumers could not confuse the packagings, as they were not similar.

He was also not convinced that, upon opening the packaging, consumers of the Tiffany Break would confuse it with Kit Kat.

He said there was no doubt that Nestlé’s Kit Kat wafers were well known.

Saturday Star