The milk label crackdown | Commercial Awareness Compass #62

The Swedish oat-drink manufacturer Oatly has been forced to relabel its products following its dispute with Dairy UK. This began with Oatly’s attempted trademark on their slogan ‘The Post Milk Generation’ being refused and was followed by a legal challenge that went all the way to the UK Supreme Court. Now, Oatly are unable to protect their slogan and must rebrand their ‘oat milk’ products to ‘oat drink’ as the UK dairy farmers reclaim exclusivity over the word ‘milk’ for dairy products.Is this really about consumer confusion, or market protection? What does a rebrand cost when you have to change packaging across shelves? And what does this mean for other ‘free-from’ or plant alternatives?The Commercial Awareness Compass by AllAboutLaw, helps you build your commercial awareness every week with a beginners, intermediate and advanced breakdown of a story from an expert lawyer and trainee solicitor host. This story was taken from a live conversation a few months ago. If you don't want to wait for these conversations, head over to the Commercial Awareness Compass to get them straight to your inbox each week. 🚀 Boost your commercial awareness: https://www.allaboutlaw.co.uk/commercial-awareness-compass