M&S sues Aldi over copied Christmas gin
Mark & Spencer (M&S) is suing Europe’s largest supermarket chain Aldi for the second time this year, this time claiming that it copied the design of its light-up Christmas gin bottles.
The high-street retailer filed the lawsuit at the UK High Court on December 3, alleging that Aldi’s blackberry and clementine gin liqueur named The Infusionist copies M&S’ own festive range of bell-shaped light-up gin bottle designs—which were registered as designs earlier this year.
This dispute follows another high-profile lawsuit between the supermarket giants in April, which saw M&S sue the German supermarket chain over a caterpillar cake that it said infringed its ‘Colin the Caterpillar’ brand.
Aldi has been selling The Infusionist gin since early November, featuring a similar bottle shape with a light at the base to illuminate gold flakes in the liqueur to its M&S counterpart.
However, Aldi’s product sells for approximately £6 less than M&S’s.
“There is a real battle brewing between these two retailers over the alleged copying of registered designs and it is not yet clear which way the High Court will decide,” said Richard Worthington, partner and registered designs specialist at Withers & Rogers.
He continued: “For Marks & Spencer, this is understandably frustrating as it has invested significant resources in the development of a product, which it hoped would sell well over the festive season, only to find a discount retailer is selling something that looks pretty similar at a significantly cheaper price.”
M&S is seeking an injunction against Aldi in order to halt the sale of its infringing bottle designs as well as surrender or destroy the bottles and pay damages.
According to the filings, Aldi’s liqueurs “ constitute designs which do not produce on the informed user a different overall impression to the [M&S] designs”.
Worthington added: “The decision by Marks & Spencer to secure registered designs before bringing its product to market was a wise move. UK and EU registered designs are relatively quick and cheap to obtain and provide robust protection for a product’s aesthetic features.
“We will have to wait and see whether this protection and the evidence of alleged infringement supplied to the court, is sufficient to block Aldi from selling its rival product. In the meantime, of course, Aldi will continue to sell its product and presumably benefit from the fact that publicity of the case is promoting it as both similar in appearance and cheaper.”
Cuthbert controversy
In April this year, M&S took Aldi to court over its ‘Cuthbert the Caterpillar’ cake, which is claimed infringes its recognisable ‘Colin the Caterpillar’ product.
After the suit hit headlines, Aldi’s caterpillar cake was pulled from store shelves. But Aldi announced a week later that a limited edition of Cuthbert would return to store shelves, and that proceeds from the sale would be donated to charity.
This was the latest in several cases involving Aldi’s ‘own-brand’ products that pose a striking similarity to existing products, including an infamous version of Brewdog’s own ‘Punk IPA’ beer.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
Today’s top stories
