The Dublin headquartered co-op, Ornua, who took a New Zealand company to court in the United States over “trademark” concerns has said it is “pleased” with the outcome of the case.
Ornua said “the agreeable outcome” addressed its concerns which were centred around the packaging used by the New Zealand company, Westland Milk Products, for its Westgold butter.
The Dublin co-op had filed a motion for a preliminary injunction referencing US trademark law against Westland Milk Products.
Ornua
Ornua had claimed that the packaging of Westland’s butter products infringed on the Kerrygold trademark because of its similarities as they both feature gold coloured packaging, cows and the words “grass-fed”.
The Dublin co-op had said that Westland’s packaging was “confusingly similar to Ornua’s federally registered Kerrygold trademarks and trade dress”.
Ornua previously told Agriland that Kerrygold was “the number one imported butter and the number two butter overall” in the US.
“We are proud of this success and will continue to protect the Kerrygold brand for the benefit of our member cooperatives and in turn, the 14,000 Irish dairy farming families they represent,” it had added.
Westland had in response to Ornua lodged a counterclaim in the US allegeding that Ornua’s motion for a preliminary injunction was anti-competitive behaviour.
But according to court records in the US both Ornua and Westland Milk Products have now reached an agreement on the “trademark” dispute.
Westland Milk Products
Richard Wyeth, chief executive of Westland Milk Products, said the company was also “pleased” that the US court had “confirmed our right to continue with our planned sales plans for Westgold butter in the US”.
The Kerrygold brand was first established in 1962.
According to Ornua “generations of dairy farmers have supplied top quality milk for the Kerrygold brand, and the success of Kerrygold around the world is attributed to the world-class milk they produce every day”.
It claims that Kerrygold is “currently the number one butter brand in Ireland, the number one butter and cheddar brand in Germany and the number two butter brand in the USA”.