by The German Paulaner Brauerei has won his lawsuit against Berentzen Gruppe on the design of the Mio Mio Sof Drink from the latter.
At the beginning of this year, Paulaner took legal action against Berentzen for the design used on the label of one of his soft drinks.
At the time, Berentzen told Just drink Paulaner had claimed that Berentzen’s Mio Mio Cola + Orange Mix Drink used “A color golf that is claimed to match the color combination of Paulaner Spezi and is therefore confusingly similar”.
In a statement yesterday (August 5), Berentzen CEO Oliver Schwegmann said that the company had been informed by a local court in Munich that it had ruled in favor of Paulaner’s argument and decided that the Mio Mio Cola + Orange Mix -drink “was too similar to the design of Paulaner Spezi”.
He added: “According to the pronunciation, this could give consumers the impression that our product is being associated with Paulaner. We acknowledge the pronunciation and will now assess the following steps internally.”
Paulaner welcomed the decision of the court. “The product presentation of Paulaner Spezi has remained unchanged for decades. It enjoys a high level of recognition and serves as a proof of origin. This is why the iconic five -color wave is protected by the trademark legislation,” said it.
“However, if other manufacturers imitate this design, appropriate measures must be taken to protect the trademark. Otherwise this right is forfeited. We always look for dialogue first. In most cases we reach an agreement and his lawsuits, however, an exception. However, there is no foreign settlement with Berentzen.”
Paulaner has had to deal with other trademarks around Spezi in the past. Three years ago the group was brought to court by Brauhaus Riegele because of the use of the name “Spezi”.
Both brewers produced a soft drink using the Spezi name. At the time, Riegele argued that it had invented the drink and that Paulaner would have to hand over license costs to continue to use the Spezi name.
In October 2022, the Munich court ruled that Paulaner could continue to drink under the name “Paulaner Spezi” because of an agreement signed between the two companies in 1974. Riegele had tried to terminate the agreement in 2021.
In a commentary on the last decision of the court in a message about LinkedIn, Schwegmann added that the group was “still convinced that our Miomio Cola + Orange clearly distinguishes from the competition and that there is no risk of confusion”.
He added: “Whether we will address in the next step whether a new and even more frightening design will develop together with our loyal Miomio community is not yet clear.”
