Fur flies in battle of chocolate bunnies

VIENNA (Reuters Life!) - An Austrian chocolate company vowed on Tuesday to appeal a ruling by a Vienna court that stops it from producing Easter bunnies resembling those made by Switzerland's Lindt & Spruengli.

Austria's Hauswirth has been locked in a seven-year battle with larger confectioner Lindt over the chocolate figures. Both chocolatiers make the distinctive sitting bunny shapes wrapped in gold foil with a red ribbon bow tie.

Lindt says Hauswirth's bunnies are a knock-off of their own version and violate its EUtrademark. It won the case blocking production at a trade court last week but the Austrian company says the bitter chocolate battle will go on. "We are going to file an appeal because we continue to believe in our legal case and the rule of law," company chief Roman Hauswirth said in a statement.

Hauswirth has argued Lindt is using its trademark to quash competition unfairly. It argues that chocolate bunnies traditionally come wrapped in gold foil and that it is normal for the shapes to look similar as they are based on animals.

Lindt was not available for comment.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source:Reuters Life! Online Report

Creative Commons image via flickr user Scary Bunny.