No grey areas in Kärcher yellow ruling

Kärcher, the well-known designer and manufacturer of home, garden and professional cleaning devices, has successfully enforced it's German colour trade mark ('zinc yellow’ / RAL 1018) at the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg.

In addition to an extensive patent portfolio, Kärcher has a number of trade marks registered around the world. Kärcher's ‘zinc yellow’ colour trade mark was registered in 2005 for ‘motor-driven cleaning devices that work with a high-pressure water jet; the aforementioned devices for use outside the home’ in class 7.  

During the court proceedings, survey evidence was submitted to show that the public perceived the yellow colour as a trade mark, and linked it to Kärcher. 

The Court found that even though Kärcher's products included other colours, such as black and grey, yellow was the predominant colour, and even the addition of completely different brand names on the defendant's goods did not detract from the overall likelihood of confusion.

Additionally, the use by the defendant of a slightly different shade of yellow was no defence, since the colours were highly similar and any slight differences would not be noticed by consumers.

Kärcher's products:	Defendant's products:

Picture source: https://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2024/11/karcher-successfully-enforces-its.html

Kärcher's consistent use of brand guidelines, which cover everything from fonts and colours to brochures and packaging, has no doubt helped solidify public recognition of it's trade mark yellow. This recent enforcement success illustrates the potential power and breadth of protection of colour mark registrations, even where the infringing products use different shades of the protected colour and include completely different word marks.

Link to court judgment: https://www.landesrecht-hamburg.de/bsha/document/NJRE001587280