Coffee battle brewing in High Court

A Gold and a Five Star Italian blend are burning coffee relations in Australia.

Two Australian coffee brands, Cantarella - which owns Vittoria - and Modena, will take their trademark fight over blend names to the nation's highest court on Tuesday.

The companies are arguing over the Italian translation of Gold and Five Star - Oro and Cinque Stelle - which Cantarella successfully trademarked over a decade ago.

Modena, which imports coffee blends also called Oro and Cinque Stelle from Italian company Caffe Molinari SpA, says those trademarks should be cancelled.

In December, Cantarella successfully sued Modena for infringing on its trademarks but that decision was later overturned in the Federal Court.

That court ruled Italian words were commonly used in relation to coffee in Australia and other traders had long used the disputed words as a quality signal.

Cantarella is now taking its case to the High Court to appeal the overturned decision, which renders its trademarks void.