Q&A: counsel for Lidl on its trademark victory over Tesco
A trademark and copyright dispute between two rival supermarkets concluded this week in a case that could influence the balance of power between the ‘big gun’ brands and their ‘discounter’ rivals.
Budget supermarket chain Lidl and the UK’s biggest retailer Tesco went head to head in a case brought by Lidl last year.
The case centred upon each retailer’s distinctive blue-and-yellow logos: Tesco’s ‘Clubcard’ logo, and two of Lidl’s marks showing its brand logo: one with text, and one without.
In a 102-page judgment handed down by the High Court of England and Wales yesterday, Wednesday 19, Justice Joanna Smith found for Lidl on its claims of trademark infringement, (with respect to the mark with text), passing off and copyright infringement.
Counsel for Lidl, Ewan Grist—a partner at Bird & Bird—says that this was “not a typical infringement claim” and that “careful preparation of detailed, comprehensive evidence was key to Lidl’s success”. In an exclusive interview with WIPR, he explains the details and implications of the case.
What is it about your strategy that you believe led to this win for Lidl?
From the outset this was not a typical trademark infringement claim. It wasn’t Lidl’s case that customers were confused between Lidl and Tesco (although as the case progressed it became apparent there was some evidence of origin confusion).
Rather, Tesco’s use of the Clubcard logo took insidious unfair advantage of Lidl’s reputation for great value—customers saw the Clubcard logo and, because of its similarity to the Lidl logo, thought that Tesco was price-matching against Lidl.
