Orkla and Mondelez argue about the blue color of Stratos and Freia Boble – meet in court

On Monday, Orkla and Mondelez will meet in the Oslo District Court, after the former went to court.

Orkla, which owns the Nidar brand that includes the Stratos chocolate, is demanding a ban on Freia producer Mondelez marketing and selling Freia Boble milk chocolate with its current packaging. In addition, Orkla demands recall of the goods from the market and compensation.

– We think Boble from Mondelez is too similar to the Norwegian people’s favorite Stratos, which has been on the market for almost 90 years, writes communications director Elisabeth Aandstad Ekheim at Orkla in an email to E24.

The online newspaper mentioned the disagreement between the chocolate producers last September. The daily Børsen has also mentioned the matter this week.

Freia: Blue illustrates air, sky and bubbles

In its final submission before the trial, Mondelez replies that Orkla does not have exclusive rights to the blue color, and that there is no risk of confusion. They also write that the exclusive right to the blue color has already been decided by the Patent Office and the Board of Appeal for Industrial Rights.

In a press release this week, Mondelez writes that Freia Boble was launched in 2000. It went out of production in 2017, before being relaunched last September.

Marketing director Sølvi Grana Slotta in Freia emphasizes that the packaging on Boble, like most of their other chocolate bars, is primarily yellow.

– Then we use different colors in addition to yellow to make it easy to distinguish between the different plates. We use colors that you naturally associate with the different flavors, for example black for licorice, light brown for almonds – and then blue for air, since Boble is Freia milk chocolate with air, says Slotte.

Mondelez also writes in its final post that the color blue illustrates sky and bubbles.

According to Freia, after the relaunch last year, Boble has also become the second best-selling chocolate bar in Norway after Freia Melkesjokolade.

Thinks blue is perceived as a Stratos trademark

Elisabeth Aandstad Ekheim in Orkla tells E24 that they have carried out research that shows that more than seven out of ten Norwegians perceive the blue color as a trademark for Stratos

– That says something about how unique the blue color is for Stratos, she says.

– Unlike milk chocolate, where yellow design is a common category colour, Stratos has been the only one in the Norwegian market to use the characteristic blue color for porous chocolate for almost 90 years, says Eikheim.