IN Brief:
- The UK Supreme Court has invalidated Oatly’s ‘POST MILK GENERATION’ trade mark for oat-based food and drink.
- The ruling turns on the scope of “designation” under retained Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and UK trade mark law.
- The decision increases compliance pressure on dairy-adjacent branding, beyond product naming alone.
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Oatly cannot use the trade mark “POST MILK GENERATION” in relation to oat-based food and drink products in the UK, upholding a challenge brought by Dairy UK. The judgment, handed down on 11 February 2026, confirms that the use of “milk” within the mark falls within the UK’s retained rules protecting dairy designations, despite Oatly’s argument that the wording functions as a slogan rather than a product description.
At the core of the decision is the interaction between trade mark registrability and labelling law. The Court held that “designation” under Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 has a broad meaning, and is not confined to the generic name of a product. The Court also rejected Oatly’s fallback position that the phrase qualifies for an exception for wording that “clearly” describes a characteristic quality of the goods. As the Court put it, “it is far from clear that that trademark is describing any characteristic” of the contested products.
The case has run for several years. Oatly applied to register the mark in November 2019, and it was registered in April 2021. Dairy UK then sought a declaration of invalidity under provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1994 that prevent registration where use is prohibited by law. The UK Intellectual Property Office found against Oatly in January 2023 on the prohibition point, the High Court later took a narrower view of “designation,” and the Court of Appeal reinstated the invalidation — leaving the Supreme Court to settle the question.
For packaging engineers and brand owners, the impact is less about one slogan and more about where compliance lines now sit. The Court’s approach makes clear that dairy-term protection can bite on trade marks and marketing phrases, not only on the product name panel, and that “milk-free” clarity is a high bar when the wording is indirect. The same protected regime covers other dairy terms, including cheese and yoghurt, and brand portfolios that lean on category borrowing will need a tighter internal review process.
Bryan Carroll, general manager for Oatly UK & Ireland, said: “In our view prohibiting the trademarking of the slogan ‘Post Milk Generation’ for use on our products in the UK is a way to stifle competition and is not in the interests of the British public.”
Retail execution will now dictate the pace of change. Removing a mark from on-pack use, point-of-sale materials, and merchandising is straightforward in principle, but slower in practice once packaging print runs, inventory cycles, and multi-SKU compliance approvals are involved. For plant-based brands still using dairy-adjacent language, the safer route in the UK market is likely to be clearer descriptors — and fewer legal arguments embedded in the typography.
