On February 11, 2026, the United Kingdom Supreme Court delivered a unanimous judgment in Dairy UK Ltd v Oatly AB UKSC 4, dealing a final blow to the oat drink manufacturer's attempt to register the trade mark "POST MILK GENERATION" for its plant-based food products.
The core legal issue rested on the interpretation of "assimilated law" post-Brexit—specifically, the EU Regulation 1308/2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products. Point 5 of Part III of Annex VII to this Regulation mandates that the designation "milk" is strictly protected and reserved exclusively for products containing mammary secretions. Section 3(4) of the UK Trade Marks Act 1994 states that a trademark shall not be registered if its use is prohibited by any enactment or rule of law.
Oatly argued that while their slogan contained the word "milk," it was not using the word as a product designation to deceive consumers, but rather as a cultural commentary. Furthermore, Oatly attempted to rely on the "Point 5 Proviso," which allows exceptions for designations that are "clearly used to describe a characteristic quality of the product". Oatly contended that the phrase legitimately described the characteristic quality of their products being "milk-free".
The Supreme Court, led by Deputy President Lord Hodge, dismissed the appeal. Applying modern principles of domestic statutory interpretation to the assimilated EU law, the Court held that the phrase indeed violated the protection of the dairy designation. The Justices concluded that the slogan did not describe a "characteristic quality" of the specific oat products in a manner contemplated by the proviso, rendering the trademark invalid for food and drink classes. Interestingly, the mark remains valid for non-agricultural goods like t-shirts.
Source: Supreme Court UK