{"id":3410,"date":"2026-02-12T15:36:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=3410"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:36:39","slug":"oatly-banned-from-using-the-word-milk-in-its-marketing-supreme-court-rules-joe-co-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=3410","title":{"rendered":"Oatly banned from using the word \u2018milk\u2019 in its marketing, supreme court rules &#8211; JOE.co.uk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Oatly banned from using the word \u2018milk\u2019 in its marketing, supreme court rules\" width=\"620\" height=\"500\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full object-cover rounded-md\" style=\"color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 620 500'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAACEN3D\/AAAAL0lEQVR42mP4z8DAwMiAARgZGJhY+P\/\/PwMDAwPDfwYGBgaGhgYGhgYGAAD9Hwlr5xRngAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg=='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\" src=\"https:\/\/cms.joe.co.uk\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AdobeStock_1003983619_Editorial_Use_Only.jpeg?height=3368&amp;width=6000\"\/><!--$--><\/p>\n<p><h2>A serious matter has been settled<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose drop-cap \">\n<p>Oatly, the Swedish-based drinks manufacturer, can no longer use the word \u201cmilk\u201d when it does marketing for its plant-based products.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>The supreme court unanimously ruled that Oatly can no longer trademark, or use, the slogan \u201cPost Milk Generation\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>The producer of alt-milk has been in a long-running legal battle with the trade association Dairy UK, as it had trademarked phrases that are associated with the dairy sector.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>A senior associate and trademark attorney at the European intellectual property company Withers &amp; Rogers, said that \u201cit has taken the highest court in the land to decide once and for all whether a plant-based milk alternative can be branded as \u2018milk\u2019 and marketed as such\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>\u201cAnd the outcome is not what Oatly was hoping for\u201d, the attorney added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"w-full flex flex-col items-center max-w-[659px] 970:max-w-[630px] my-5\">\n<div class=\"w-[345px] tablet:w-[618px]\"><img alt=\"Article image\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"618\" height=\"329\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full h-auto object-contain rounded-[10px]\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/cms.joe.co.uk\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AdobeStock_398401439_Editorial_Use_Only.jpeg\"\/><img alt=\"Logo Camera in article\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"11\" height=\"9\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"absolute w-[11px] h-[9px] bottom-[11px] right-[11px] object-conatin tablet:hidden\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joe.co.uk\/_next\/static\/media\/camera.5e27b748.png\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>As per regulations, certain terms can be used only to denote the actual products they describe, such as milk, wine and olive oil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>And milk is defined as coming from the dairy sector and, more specifically, animals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>In spite of this, Oatly, which first filed a trademark application for the term \u201cPost Milk Generation\u201d, had argued that the use of the term \u201cmilk\u201d in a trademark did not breach regulations if it was not being used in a descriptive manner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>According to Dairy UK chief executive, Judith Bryans, \u201cthis ruling is an important decision for the sector as it finally provides clarity on how dairy terms can \u2013 and cannot \u2013 be used in branding and marketing\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>\u201cIt brings greater certainty for businesses and helps ensure that long-established dairy terms continue to carry clear meaning for consumers, while allowing appropriate descriptors to be used where the law permits.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Oatly remained defiant despite the defeat handed down by the UK\u2019s highest court, stating that the ruling was anti-competitive and not good for the British public.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<p>#Oatly #banned #word #milk #marketing #supreme #court #rules #JOE.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A serious matter has been settled Oatly, the Swedish-based drinks manufacturer, can no longer use the word \u201cmilk\u201d when it does marketing for its plant-based products. The supreme court unanimously ruled that Oatly can no longer trademark, or use, the slogan \u201cPost Milk Generation\u201d. The producer of alt-milk has been in a long-running legal battle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1496,2719,3124,2861,3128,3125,3126,391,3129,3127,2281],"class_list":{"0":"post-3410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"tag-banned","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-dairy-uk","11":"tag-joe-co-uk","12":"tag-marketing","13":"tag-milk","14":"tag-oatly","15":"tag-rules","16":"tag-supreme","17":"tag-supreme-court","18":"tag-word"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}