In the ad, which is titled Kit Kat: Breakout, a row of people, of varying ages and appearance, share a sofa and play a video game during their work break. In the game depicted, a primitive paddle moves side-to-side to bounce a ball into a collision with the horizontal bars ranged across the top of the screen.
Atari alleges that the similarity with its original game “is so plain and blatant that Nestle cannot claim to be an <<innocent>> infringer”.
The legal complaint against Nestle, filed in a San Francisco court on August 17, claims that Nestle had hoped to exploit “the special place [Breakout] holds among nostalgic Baby Boomers, Generation X, and even today’s Millennial and post-Millennial <<gamers>>”.
A Nestle spokesperson said: “This is a UK TV advert that ran in 2016. The ad no longer runs and we have no current plans to re-run it.
“We are aware of the lawsuit in the US and will defend ourselves strongly against these allegations.”
Maggi noodles are back on Indian stores shelves, five months after a food scare saw them taken off shelves.
In May, Indian food safety authorities banned the production and sale of Maggi amid claims they contained dangerously high levels of lead.
The ban was overturned in the Bombay High Court in August.
Nestle had to destroy 400 million packets of Maggi products and stop production in the wake of the tests.
The product recall cost the company $67 million.
A company statement on November 9 said it had been “a challenging period for the Nestle organization and therefore, there is a feeling of satisfaction at bringing back Maggi noodles to the market”.
India’s government is suing Nestle for $100 million over allegedly misleading Maggi ads.
Fresh tests mandated by an Indian court found last month that the lead content in Maggi noodles was at a safe level.
Nestle was also criticized for what was seen as a slow reaction to the crisis.
The company is planning a consumer helpline and says it will be more active on social media.
Swiss food giant Nestle has failed to convince European judges that it has the right to trademark the shape of its four-finger KitKat bar in the UK.
The European Court of Justice said that Nestle had to demonstrate the public relied on the shape alone to identify the snack.
The judges concluded this was difficult to prove if goods also showed a brand name such as KitKat.
Rival Cadbury has battled to prevent Nestle obtaining the trademark.
Both Nestle and Cadbury said they were “pleased” with the ruling.
The case will now return to the UK High Court for a final decision.
Nestle claimed that in the 80 years since the chocolate bar was introduced, the four fingers have become almost completely associated with KitKats.
In June, a senior European court lawyer, the advocate-general, disagreed saying such a trademark did not comply with European law.
Nestle has not sought to trademark the two-fingered bar.
Today’s ruling is the latest development in a more than 10-year legal battle between Nestle and Cadbury, which started when Cadbury tried to trademark the purple color it uses on its Cadbury chocolate wrappers.
Nestle objected and finally had the original decision allowing Cadbury to trademark the color overturned in 2013.
Now it would appear Cadbury, which is owned by Mondelez International, has scored a significant but not final victory in the continuing chocolate war.
It has always argued the shape alone was not distinctive enough for consumers to associate it with the rival snack.
A bar called the Kvikk Lunsj, meaning “quick lunch”, launched in Norway in 1937 is available in some UK stores, and although less well known, looks similar to the four-finger KitKat.
A ruling in favor of Nestle would stop other confectionery producers making chocolate bars of the same shape or size.
Nestle India has decided to temporarily stop distribution of Maggi noodles across India.
The move comes amid concerns about safety as several states have been testing Nestle’s bestselling instant noodle brand for higher-than-allowed levels of lead.
Maggi noodles have also been testing for the chemical monosodium glutamate, widely known as MSG.
Nestle said in a statement on June 5 that Maggi noodles were completely safe.
However, “recent developments and unfounded concerns about the product have led to an environment of confusion for the consumer,” Nestle said.
Nestle said the confusion had developed to such an extent “that we have decided to withdraw the product off the shelves, despite the product being safe”, but promised the noodles would return to the market as soon as the current problem was dealt with.
Maggi noodles had already been banned for 15 days in India’s capital Delhi and states including Gujarat. However, other states had deemed them safe.
The earlier ban of Maggi noodles in Delhi received prominent coverage in the media and on social media platforms.
Maggi noodles ban sparked humor as well as public health concerns on social media platforms like Twitter.
Nestle has decide to recall some of its varieties of Chunky Kit Kat after seven people in UK found pieces of plastic in bars.
Peanut butter, hazelnut, choc fudge and caramel 48 g bars are being recalled, along with Kit Kat Chunky collection giant eggs.
Nestle said the products should be returned, unopened, for a full refund.
The company said the products were being recalled as a precautionary measure and that no other Kit Kat products were affected.
“The safety and quality of our products are non-negotiable priorities for the company. We sincerely apologize to our consumers for any inconvenience caused by this voluntary recall,” Nestle said in a statement.
Nestle has decide to recall some of its varieties of Chunky Kit Kat after seven people in UK found pieces of plastic in bars
The products recalled are:
Kit Kat chunky peanut butter 48g bars with a best before date range from September 2013 to February 2014
Kit Kat chunky hazelnut 48g bars with a best before date range from September 2013 to October 2013
Kit Kat chunky choc fudge 48g bars with a best before date range from September 2013 to October 2013
Kit Kat chunky caramel (48g) with a best before date range from June 2013 to July 2013
Kit Kat chunky hazelnut multipack with a best before date range from September 2013 to December 2013
Kit Kat chunky collection giant egg with a best before date of July 2013.
The affected products are predominantly sold in the UK, with small amounts also sold in Germany, Switzerland, Malta, Austria, Singapore, the Philippines and Canada.
Kit Kat is one of Nestle’s top-selling brands, with 150 bars consumed worldwide every second.
Swiss-based firm Nestle has removed beef pasta meals from shelves in Italy and Spain after tests revealed traces of horse DNA.
Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, halted deliveries of products containing meat from a German supplier.
The company is the latest in a string of major food producers to find traces of horsemeat in beef meals.
A spokesman for Nestle said levels of horse DNA were very low but above 1%.
Last week the firm said its products did not contain horsemeat.
Nestle withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain.
Lasagnes a la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be withdrawn.
A spokesman for the company said Nestle had identified a problem with a supplier from Germany.
A statement on the Nestle website identified the supplier as HJ Schypke, a sub-contractor of JBS Toledo, a major meat processing company based in Belgium.
“There is no food safety issue, but the mislabelling of products means they fail to meet the very high standards consumers expect from us,” the statement said.
Nestle has removed beef pasta meals from shelves in Italy and Spain after tests revealed traces of horse DNA
In addition to removing the three affected products from sale, Nestle would be “enhancing our existing comprehensive quality assurance programme by adding new tests on beef for horse DNA prior to production in Europe”, it added.
The news that Nestle is now having to withdraw some foods, shows the problem is far wider than previously thought and, critics say, how dangerously unregulated the food industry has become.
The widening scandal over mislabelled horsemeat has affected at least 12 European countries, including Switzerland, where the retailer Co-op – famous for its broad range of organic, locally-sourced food – was on Monday forced to remove nine different products from its shelves.
Last Wednesday, Co-op said it had found horsemeat in its own-brand frozen lasagne produced by the Comigel food processing company in France.
Co-op now faces possible charges of negligence from the Swiss authorities.
France meanwhile partially lifted a production ban for another meat processing firm, Spanghero.
The French government revoked its licence last week over suspicions that Spanghero knowingly sold horsemeat labelled as beef, an allegation the company rejects.
The French authorities said that unwitting workers should not be penalized.
As a result Spanghero will be allowed to produce minced meat, sausages and ready-to-eat meals, but not to stock frozen meat.
Meanwhile the UK and Germany have also both pledged to step up testing of frozen food products.
Nestle, the world’s biggest food group, has reported rising sales but says it is having a “challenging year”.
The Swiss company said its sales in the first three months of 2012 were 21.4 billion Swiss francs ($23.4 billion), up 5.6% from the same period last year.
The group behind KitKat and Nespresso said that the trading environment had been subdued in many developed markets.
But it added that in most emerging markets “conditions remain dynamic and rich in growth opportunities”.
Nestle, the world's biggest food group has reported rising sales but says it is having a "challenging year"
Nestle struggled in 2011 with the strength of the Swiss franc, which cut its earnings by 13.4% in the full year.
But in the past six months the Swiss central bank has been intervening to weaken its currency and support the country’s exporters.
Nestle said an expected “improved raw material environment” in the second half of the year together with rising prices meant it could maintain its forecast of improved earnings and profit margins for the full year.
It did not comment on the deal it is expected to finalize this month to buy Pfizer’s infant nutrition business for about $9 billion.
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