--- title: Nestle Can't Trademark the Classic KitKat Shape: Judge description: Nestle's attempt to trademark the KitKat shape in England was denied canonical: https://time.com/4187421/kitkat-nestle-trademark-england/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-20T20:08:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:59.235Z article:section: Business og:title: Nestle Can't Trademark the Classic KitKat Shape, Judge Rules og:description: Nestle's attempt to trademark the KitKat shape in England was denied og:url: https://time.com/4187421/kitkat-nestle-trademark-england/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a43d4690a06a5b5/698780ddcd1bba03266f563f/gettyimages_94106239.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Nestle To Make Fairtrade KitKats og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nestle Can't Trademark the Classic KitKat Shape, Judge Rules twitter:description: Nestle's attempt to trademark the KitKat shape in England was denied twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a43d4690a06a5b5/698780ddcd1bba03266f563f/gettyimages_94106239.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nestle Can't Trademark the Classic KitKat Shape, Judge Rules by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 20, 2016 8:08 PM CUT  Bars of original KitKat chocolate, produced by Nestle SA, sit arranged for a photograph in London, U.K., on Monday, Dec.7, 2009. Bars of original KitKat chocolate, produced by Nestle SA, sit arranged for a photograph in London, U.K., on Monday, Dec.7, 2009.Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 20, 2016 8:08 PM CUT Nestle’s attempt to trademark the KitKat shape was [denied in England.](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nestle-loses-trademark-bid-on-kitkat-shape/ "undefined") The British High Court ruled Wednesday in the long legal battle between Nestle and Cadbury over the shape of the four-fingered candy bar. Judge Richard Arnold [found that the shape wasn’t distinctive enough](http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2016/50.html "undefined") to warrant a trademark, according to CBS. Arnold concluded that [the shoppers weren’t likely](http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2016/50.html "undefined") to confuse KitKats with similarly shaped chocolate bars because of the distinctive packaging. “In these circumstances it seems likely that consumers rely only on the word mark KitKat and the other word and the pictorial marks used in relation to the goods in order to identify the trade origin of the products,” he said. “They associate the shape with KitKat (and therefore with Nestlé), but no more than that.” Nestle, manufacturer of KitKat bars in the U.K., told CBS that it plans to appeal Arnold’s decision, saying in a statement, “we believe that the shape deserves to be protected as a trademark in the U.K. and are disappointed that the court did not agree on this occasion.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4187421/kitkat-nestle-trademark-england/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4187421/kitkat-nestle-trademark-england/"},"headline":"Nestle Can't Trademark the Classic KitKat Shape, Judge Rules","datePublished":"2016-01-20T20:08:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:59.235Z","description":"Nestle's attempt to trademark the KitKat shape in England was denied","url":"https://time.com/4187421/kitkat-nestle-trademark-england/","keywords":["legal","Newsfeed","england","Candy","uk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a43d4690a06a5b5/698780ddcd1bba03266f563f/gettyimages_94106239.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a43d4690a06a5b5/698780ddcd1bba03266f563f/gettyimages_94106239.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nestle To Make Fairtrade KitKats","caption":"Nestle To Make Fairtrade KitKats","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/legal/","name":"legal"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4187421/kitkat-nestle-trademark-england/","name":"Nestle Can't Trademark the Classic KitKat Shape, Judge Rules"}}]}] ```