‘m&m’ Melts in Sweden

The Svea Court of Appeal , at Stockholm ruled in favour of Mondelez International in a trademark dispute over ‘m&m’ against Mars. The Court held that Mars would be liable to pay fine up to $246,000. Starting this July, Mars barred from selling its colourful sugar coated chocolates under the trade name of lower case ‘m&m’.

The Court held that ‘m&m’ is confusingly similar to Sweden’s “all time favourite”, ‘m’ marked chocolate covered Almond and Peanuts of Marabou. “ The Court of Appeal has paid particular attention to the signs used for goods of the same kind, that Kraft’s trademarks ‘m’ and Mars trademarks ‘m’ is virtually identical and that there is a prominent visual similarity between Kraft trademarks ‘m’ and Mars trademarks ’m & m’s .”

Marabou belongs to Mondelez International, also the owner of brand names like Cadbury, Nabisco, Oreo and Trident , which up until 2012 was known as Kraft.

Mondelez, introduced Marabou’s ‘m’ brand chocolates in Sweden, in 1950’s with a partnership of Mars.In 1989 an agreement was made between the two which barred Mars from introducing ‘m&m’ in Sweden, Finland and Norway. The said agreement expired in 1998, and was not extend since. Mars introduced ‘m&m’ in Sweden in 2009.