Marks and Spencer Group PLC has gone into battle with budget supermarket chain Aldi for a second time – this time over the design of gin bottles.
M&S has applied to the High Court for an injunction against alleged infringement of its design, claiming that the designs of Aldi’s gold flake clementine gin liqueur and gold flake blackberry gin liqueur are “strikingly similar” to its own ‘Light Up’ gin.
It follows another High Court action in April this year, when M&S filed for an injunction against Aldi over cake, alleging that Aldi's Cuthbert cake copied its Colin the Caterpillar cake. This action, which became popularly known as “Caterpillargate”, is ongoing.
Legal filings by M&S at the High Court on 3 December claim Aldi's products "constitute designs which do not produce on the informed user a different overall impression to the [M&S] designs". M&S said comparisons of the products in media reports were evidence of their similarity.
Both companies’ gin bottles are bell-shaped with a light in the base that illuminates edible gold flakes in the liquid. The Aldi product costs about £6 less than the £20 M&S version.
The action concerns alleged infringement of an M&S design that was on sale last year, not the similar globe bottles currently available.
An M&S spokesperson said: "M&S has a proud history as a leading British innovator and for over 136 years customers have turned to M&S for unique, original, quality products - conceived, created and developed by us working with our trusted suppliers and produced to the highest standards."
Among the company’s firsts are chilled chicken kiev, pre-packed sandwiches and glitter gin globes.
"We will always seek to protect our reputation for freshness, quality, innovation and value - and protect our customers from obvious copies," M&S said.
Aldi has teased M&S on social media over its High Court action relating to the cake by using a #FreeCuthbert hashtag. Its Christmas ad showed Cuthbert being arrested by a policeman.