Hardware store chain Obi loses color dispute: No logo!

dpa | The hardware store chain Obi does not receive trademark protection for its “house color” orange. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) and rejected the company's appeal against a decision by the Federal Patent Court. This had previously declared the deletion of the color trademark requested by competing hardware store chains to the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) to be legal. Obi then went before the BGH.

According to the presiding judge, the color orange is at most a reference to hardware store chains in general, but not to a specific hardware store like Obi. Obi had previously argued that the special color that characterizes its logo, a kind of light red-orange, is a central and unmistakable part of its brand identity. The Federal Patent Court saw this differently - and now the BGH too. (Af. I ZB 58/25)

This ends a long-standing dispute between the company and the competing hardware store chains Hornbach and Globus. Their market presence is also determined by the color orange - they had applied for the Obi color trademark to be deleted.