Plant-based drink maker Oatly has lost a long-running legal battle over its use of the word “milk” in its marketing.

The Swedish company tried to trademark the slogan “post-milk generation” in the UK in 2021 but Dairy UK, the representative body for British dairy farmers, objected.

Following rulings in several courts, the UK Supreme Court on Wednesday said Oatly could neither trademark nor use the phrase “post-milk generation”.

The long-running dispute has centred on Dairy UK’s argument that, under trademark law, the term “milk” can only be used to refer to products that come from an animal.

  • r0ertel@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Change the “L” in milk to an uppercase “i” and call it good. They can’t help it if people mispronounce “miIk”.

  • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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    4 days ago

    The long-running dispute has centred on Dairy UK’s argument that, under trademark law, the term “milk” can only be used to refer to products that come from an animal.

    What do you guys call coconut-milk?

  • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    This one really is stupid. Non dairy milk has been a part of my language from a very early age. Does this mean you can’t crack a coconut and call the liquid in it milk?

  • angeredkitten@slrpnk.net
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    4 days ago

    What a nonsense thing to fight about. Since when has “milk” only referred to animal related products? The EU and UK judiciary systems obviously don’t want to let go of their cattle farms.

    • rautapekoni@sopuli.xyz
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      4 days ago

      Also the word milk in the slogan there clearly references the product you can leave behind by switching to Oatly so I’m baffled that multiple courts took the lobbyists side. Either there’s something crucial left unsaid here on the courts in the UK are filled with corrupt cunts.

    • python@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      The German milk lobby is trying to pull the same shit in our language, a common retort to that is “Scheuermilch” (“Scrubbing milk”) - a type of cleaning solution meant for scrubbing tiles and the like.

    • Chais@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Technically, yes. But the nipples have nothing to do with that.
      And if they do you should see a doctor.