The Superior Court of Bogotá ordered that Aguardiente Antioqueño Real be withdrawn from the Colombian market due to its similarity to Aguardiente Amarillo de Manzanares, and required the FLA to modify its appearance to continue marketing it.

The control body also prohibited the FLA from promoting and selling Aguardiente Real in the Colombian market if its presentation resembled that used by the ILC.

“The Court concluded that the FLA did not make a significant effort to differentiate its product from one already recognized in the market. The image, form of offer, advertising and color palette of the product lack sufficient distinctive elements to differentiate it from ILC Yellow Spirit,” the Court noted.

For its part, the FLA argued that there were differences between both products: first, that the bottle used is conical with a steeper angle of inclination; second, that the use of green letters on the glass of the bottle had already been used in the Antioqueño Real; and third, that the use of color in the product does not infringe industrial property rights, since other brands exist.

However, this was not enough and the Superior Court of Bogotá ruled in favor of the Caldas Liquor Industry and ordered the FLA to distribute its product under a new presentation.