Société des produits Nestlé SA and another company v European Union Intellectual Property Office; Mondelez UK Holdings & Services Ltd v European Union Intellectual Property Office; European Union Intellectual Property Office v Monde

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court had been right to annul the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office on the basis that it had been vitiated by an error of law in so far as the Board had found that the mark at issue, representing the shape of a four-fingered chocolate bar, had acquired distinctive character through use, thereby justifying the application to that mark of art 7(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009, without adjudication on whether that mark had acquired such distinctive character in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal. Consequently, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the appellants' respective appeals relating to invalidity proceedings between Cadbury Holdings Ltd, established in the UK, and Société des produits Nestlé SA.