The owner of Toblerone is suing a British chocolate maker for allegedly copying their famous shape.
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owner → sue → shape
Mondelez International has accused the vegan company Catherine's Originals of 'passing off' and trademark infringement with its O'bar range.
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International → accuse → range
The Catherine's Originals O'bar is designed as a traditional rectangular bar of chocolate divided into segments, each with a round semi-oval shape on top.
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O'bar → design → top
But Mondelez International, owned by Kraft, is now suing the Walberton, West Sussex-based company for infringement, alleging that the shape constitutes passing off of the iconic Toblerone pyramids.
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shape → own → pyramids
Catherine's Originals's flavours include Pumpkin Spice, Halloween Blood Orange, Dark Ginger, It's Cool Mint, Cookie No Crumble Cheesecake, Coconut Coast and Cinnamon Swirl.
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It → include → Spice
The vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate bars start from £9.20 up to £10.55 and according to the company's website, are 'selling out so quickly that many Choco Lovers have missed out'.
Catherine Dodd, 24, launched the company with her boyfriend Jamie Miller, 25, in 2021 after the couple, from Horsham, began making vegan sweets.
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couple → start → sweets
In a video reacting to the lawsuit posted to the company's Facebook page on Thursday, Ms Dodd told fans: 'News has got into the press about our O'bar and obviously it's pretty scary, shocking, uneasy, daunting.
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it → react → O'bar
Pictured: The iconic mountain peak featured on bars of Toblerone chocolate
Pictured: The O'bar, created by West Sussex company Catherine's Originals, which is accused of copying the famous Toblerone shape
'
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which → picture → shape
It's a lot to process for a company of our size compared to a company like Kraft.
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It → process → Kraft
It's corporate bullying, it's what companies like Kraft are known for doing.
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companies → know → Kraft
They've tried it countless times before.
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They → try → it
It's absurd because their trademark, what they believe using, our O'bar has not one look about it of a triangle, not one look.
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they → believe → triangle
Not one little bit of it looks like a triangle.'
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bit → look → triangle
She said 'big giants' attempt to 'bulldoze small companies like Catherine's Originals', adding: 'We stand firmly behind our product.
'
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We → say → product
We stand firmly behind O'bar and our case, we have an A-star team behind us and we know we're not... breaching trademark rights, we know we are not anything like Toblerone.
'
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we → stand → Toblerone
We are not going to be bullied.
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We → go → ?
It's not happening.'
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It → happen → ?
And in an earlier blog post on the company's website on Monday, Ms Dodd wrote: 'We strongly disagree with Kraft's claim against us and are working with our A* legal team to defend our position...
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We → write → position
The "O" comes from "Originals".
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O → come → Originals
The curved, rounded segments, the colourful stripes, the flavours and the stories on the packaging all have my personality in them.
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segments → have → them
I'm proud of what we've created.
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we → create → what
'Kraft alleges that O'bar infringes the Toblerone trade mark rights and could mislead people to believe there is a commercial connection with Toblerone.
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O'bar → allege → Toblerone
'Its claim also includes allegations that O'bar takes unfair advantage of Toblerone's reputation.
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O'bar → include → reputation
We, I, dispute those allegations.
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We → dispute → allegations
'Catherine's Originals is an independent business with no commercial affiliation with Toblerone or Mondelez, and we do not believe O'bar infringes the trade mark rights being asserted against it in the slightest.'
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O'bar → believe → slightest
Ms Dodd added that she will 'fight' the lawsuit.
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she → add → lawsuit
A Mondelez International spokesman told the Daily Mail: 'The iconic Toblerone shape is one of the most recognised and distinctive product designs in the UK and across the world, and has been a hallmark of the brand since 1929.
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shape → tell → 1929
'We have a responsibility to protect our trademarks and intellectual property, which we take seriously.
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we → have → which
'We have attempted to resolve this matter constructively and directly with Catherine's Originals over several months but unfortunately have been unable to reach an agreement.
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We → attempt → agreement
'We cannot comment further on ongoing legal matters.'
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We → comment → matters
The lawsuit comes after Mondelez International fought the launch of Poundland's Twin Peaks bar in 2017, which had two humps of chocolate instead of the famous single peak on Toblerone bars.
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which → come → bars
Poundland was forced to delay the launch but it eventually went ahead after the supermarket chain modified the colour of the package and shape of the chocolate.
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chain → force → chocolate
It can still be bought today.
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It → buy → ?
In 2023, Toblerone was forced to change its packaging after production moved outside Switzerland, meaning that to avoid falling foul of marketing rules it had to remove the Matterhorn mountain peak from its packaging.
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it → force → packaging
The Aporia
