Esso tiger roars to victory over Frosties

Esso has won a legal cat fight with the makers of Frosties over plans to display a cartoon tiger in its filling stations.

The petrol firm's parent company, Exxon, wanted to trademark the cartoon character for its chain of Tigermarket shops.

Breakfast cereal makers Kellogg's challenged this, claiming the new logo is too similar to its Tony the Tiger branding.

Now a court, it was revealed today, has told Kellogg's its tiger is not so grrrrreat and given Exxon permission to use their own version.

Since the 1950s, Kellog's has registered different depictions of Tony to market cereal, toys and even computer games. It claimed the Tigermarket big cat would confuse customers.

Trademark judge John MacGillivray conceded that there was "some degree of visual similarity" between the cartoon characters.

But he ruled the British public will be able to tell the difference between them because "there is no real connection between the services and the goods" offered by the two companies. He ordered Kellogg's to pay ?1,100 of Exxon's costs.