Supermarket chains Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) and Lidl will spend at least £2.35mln disputing copyright issues in court amid claims the UK’s biggest food retailer ripped off the German discounter’s logo.
Lidl insisted Tesco exploited the background of its trademarked logo – a blue square with a yellow circle inside it and a thin red border – for its own Clubcard discounts.
The budget supermarket claimed it is a “wordless” trademark, even without Lidl’s name on it and wants to stop Tesco from using it.
Tesco disputes the claim and described the 'Wordless Mark' as a 'figment of Lidl's legal imagination' in documents shown to the court.
Lidl accused Tesco of “seeking deliberately to ride on the coat tails of Lidl’s reputation as a ‘discounter’” by copying the background to its logo to promote its Clubcard price reductions.
The budget food retailer conducted a survey, where respondents were shown the background without the Lidl name and asked what it was. “Numerous responses” thought there was some affiliation with the German supermarket.
The Judge, who confirmed both were spending almost £1.2mln each on the case before any conclusions had even been reached, said Lidl’s lawyers think the background to the logo is “capable of being, and is, perceived by the public in the United Kingdom as being distinctive of the Lidl group of companies.”