Just three months after Cadbury won a battle against Nestle allowing the former to trademark its signature colour purple, the two chocolatiers found themselves in the throes of a legislative battle once again.

The judge who allowed Cadbury to trademark its shade of purple said that colours can be linked inherently with a brand. Nestle, as of today, have now proven that shape can as well.

Nestle’s hero of the hour, the KitKat bar, is the owner of a distinctive four finger shape that is now protected by trademark, to the detriment of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Wafer. KitKat is one of the top selling chocolate bars in the UK, but Cadbury’s reign over the domestic chocolate market made the Wafer a strong seller. Regulators in the recent trademark suit, however, have found that Nestle’s longstanding use of the four-fingered bar makes it a shape that exclusively denotes the Nestle brand.

Branding in cases such as these relies not on a wordmark or logo, but on the feeling, colour, shape or tone ingrained in that brand. It’s not just a 21st century phenomenon either, Tiffany & Co. has held the trademark on Robin’s Egg Blue for over 160 years.

To read more about brand iconography, see this month's cover story.