A dispute between biscuit companies Jacobs and McVities over allegedly confusing packaging of fig rolls and cream crackers has been settled at the High Court.
The settlement was announced yesterday to Mr Justice Frank Clarke after he delivered his reserved judgment outlining his reasons for granting Jacobs an injunction earlier this month which restrained McVities from releasing tens of thousands of packets of McVities fig rolls, now in storage here, onto the Irish market.
The judge had refused a similar injunction restraining the sale of thousands of packets of McVities cream crackers.
Jacobs had sought the injunctions to prevent the sale here of 100,000 packets of McVities cream crackers and fig rolls which McVities had planned to launch on the Irish market.
Giving his judgment yesterday, the judge said he had granted the injunction in relation to the fig rolls because the McVities fig rolls were packaged in a "remarkably similar" manner to the Jacob's fig rolls. This created a risk of confusion for consumers.
However, he had refused the injunction relating to McVities cream crackers because he considered there were significant differences between the packaging of the Jacobs and McVities products.
John Gleeson SC, for Jacobs, said the parties had reached an agreement earlier yesterday which settled the entire action and the only order required was to discharge the injunction secured by Jacobs in relation to the McVities fig rolls. Rory Brady SC, for McVities, agreed.
No details of the settlement were provided.