Chanel Objects To Chocolate No 5

Ask anyone with a passing interest in fashion or fragrance and they will tell you that the number five (or No 5 as it generally appears), belongs to Chanel. Displayed prominently on bottles of its signature fragrance since 1921, the founder's favourite number has nevertheless been borrowed by an Australian chocolate company, prompting the French house to issue a cease-and-desist letter.

The company's owner filed to register its Chocolate @ No.5 logo - which bore a striking resemblance to the perfume's simple white label, and has since been changed to a more graphic depiction of the name - but received an action to oppose the mark from Chanel's legal team. Although the owner, Alison Peck, claims that she was asked to withdraw her registration, The Fashion Law reports, and change her logo, Chanel asserts that there is more to the story.

"Chanel would like to comment on some of the current press reports regarding Ms Peck's Chocolate @ No. 5 trade mark applications as they do not accurately reflect the facts," a brand spokesperson told us today. "Chanel is always mindful of the need to balance the protection of its trade mark rights with the rights of others to trade freely. That is why Chanel did not object to Ms Peck's application to register the word mark: Chocolate @ N°5 for chocolate drinks and various chocolate food products - biscuits, confectionery etc.

Chanel's main concern was that Ms Peck was also using and had applied to register as a trade mark the No.5 label in a strikingly similar black and white font for perfumed candles. Chanel only asked Ms Peck to withdraw the label applications and that over time she reduce the font size of No.5 on her labelling. Ms Peck agreed. She is therefore free to register Chocolate @ N°5. Chanel has tried to be conciliatory, looking at all times for a mutually acceptable solution and regrets that Ms Peck felt the need to re-brand her business, which was not our intention."

Peck, who insists her shop is named after its address at 5 Main Street, refused to drop the number entirely from the name, despite agreeing to the company's other two requests: "That was when I realised I was being bullied," she told theSydney Morning Herald. "They don't own the number five. Never mind that China is churning out counterfeit Chanel at a rate of knots. I was not trying to pass of my chocolates as being Chanel No.5. That's just silly because it's chocolate."

Chanel founder Gabrielle Coco Chanel fell in love with the number as a child, legend has it, and when presented with vials of scent by her master perfumer she chose the fifth vial offered, determining: "I present my dress collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year, and so we will let this sample number five keep the name it has already, it will bring good luck," Tilar J. Mazzeo, wrote in The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Biography of a Scent.