Vienna - An Austrian food maker lost a court battle over his right to produce blue sugar-coated pumpkin seeds, after US pharmaceutical group Pfizer Inc. said they were too similar to its impotence pill Viagra, Austrian media reported Tuesday.

Richard Mandl claims on his company website that he named his candy Styriagra by combining the name of his home province Styria with the word agrarian.

The Vienna appeal court overturned an earlier ruling by a local court, which had found that consumers were unlikely to mistake a food product for a prescription drug.

The Vienna court argued that Mandl had deliberately designed his sweets like Viagra, and that he had touted the alleged aphrodisiacal effect of pumpkin seeds, Austrian broadcaster ORF reported.

After the Styriagra producer was ordered to pay several thousand euros in damages, his lawyer has advised against further appeals. (dpa)