Oatly, the Swedish oat drink maker, has lost its fight to keep the word “milk” in one of its best-known slogans in the UK.
This week, the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the company cannot trademark or use the phrase “Post Milk Generation” on its products.
At the center of the dispute is a rule that has been in place for decades: certain food terms are legally reserved for the products they describe. “Milk,” under UK and EU-derived regulations, is defined as coming from animals. The same principle applies to words like “butter,” “cheese,” and “yoghurt.”
The Battle for Meaning
Challenging the strict interpretation, Oatly argued that its slogan isn’t describing a product as dairy milk but using the word in a broader, more cultural sense.
The brand first applied for the trademark “Post Milk Generation” with the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in 2019. It was subsequently registered in 2021.
After Dairy UK, the trade association representing milk producers and processors, objected, the IPO determined that the use of “milk” in that context was “deceptive.” Oatly appealed to the High Court and initially won in Dec. 2023, only for the Court of Appeal to reverse that victory in late 2024. The case eventually landed at the Supreme Court in 2025, which sided with the dairy industry.
The judgment could ripple beyond Oatly. Other plant-based producers that lean on dairy-adjacent language may now face closer scrutiny. There is also a European angle. Oatly’s trademarks in other countries could now come under pressure from equivalent dairy bodies. The same naming restrictions apply across many markets, and the UK’s highest court has drawn a clear boundary.
This is not the first time Oatly has been in court over branding. In 2021, it lost a trademark case against Glebe Farm Foods, a UK oat producer, over the name PureOaty. The Cambridge-based company was allowed to keep its brand.
For Oatly, the latest setback doesn’t change the broader trend: plant-based alternatives continue to grow in supermarkets, even if they have to be careful about what they call themselves. But in the UK at least, one line has now been firmly drawn. Whatever it’s made from, if it’s not from an animal, it can’t be “milk.”
Sources: Supreme Court UK Judgement, The Guardian