A Church of England bishop has lashed out at Cadbury after the confectionery maker won exclusive rights to use its characteristic deep purple for sweet wrappers.
The ruling means that the producers of Britain's first fair-trade, religious chocolate tree decorations, The Meaningful Chocolate Company, has been forced to use red wrappers, despite purple being the traditional colour of Advent.
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cotterell, said that Cadbury should not be 'so precious over purple'.
Cadbury has won exclusive rights to use its distinctive purple for its wrapper
He added: "Cadbury should reflect that before they even existed, the colour purple was around and, perish the thought, after they have gone it will still be here."
Cadbury, owned by the food conglomerate, Kraft, won the rights in a case against rival sweet makers, Nestle.
A Cadbury spokesman told The Times: "We have not patented purple. We are merely protecting against other major chocolate manufacturers.
"We are not seeking to own every shade of purple."