Carrot Puff Copycat: Copyright Infringed in Federal Court of Australia Case
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As reported by Mason Hayes & Curran, the Federal Court of Australia has reportedly found the supermarket chain, Aldi, liable for copyright infringement regarding illustrations used on the packaging of children’s food products.
The case involved Aldi’s house brand, MAMIA, which it reportedly admitted was designed to look like another brand, BELLIES. In 2019, when Aldi underwent a redesign of the packaging for the MAMIA brand, it reportedly instructed a design company to use BELLIES as a benchmark. As the below photo illustrates, the new MAMIA packaging was similar to BELLIES.
The Australian court concluded that it was likely Aldi had drawn inspiration for the MAMIA designs from the BELLIES packaging. This was inferred from the following similarities: a small, oval-shaped cartoon character with a light-coloured belly, a solid white background, a two-column layout, a rounded, childlike font, and a number in the upper-right corner, among others.
The decision found that these layout and design elements involved a degree of “creativity or originality”, and they “go beyond an idea or concept and constitute a form of expression”. The court was ultimately satisfied that Aldi “ought reasonably to have known that the making of the relevant articles constituted an infringement of the copyright in the Applicant’s Puff Works”.
Authors: Emily Groper and Annie MacKinnon
Photo Credit: istock.com/Jacob Wackerhausen
