Why lookalike cases are not a lost cause despite Thatchers v Aldi
Aldi’s win in a dispute with a cider brewery offers some important takeaways and tips for brand owners, says Roland Mallinson of Taylor Wessing.
Having lost to M&S in a case about a snow globe light-up gin last year, Aldi has successfully defended another lookalike case, this time involving cider. The M&S case was based on design rights; this one, brought by the maker of Thatchers Cider, was based on trademark rights. There are some useful lessons for brand owners to learn from Judge Melissa Clarke’s judgment (decision here)—and more may soon be coming this year from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in the aforementioned M&S case.
What was this case about?
It was about the products shown below. Our EU27 friends would likely see this as an easy win for Thatchers. Moreover, Aldi was held to have benchmarked its get-up from that of Thatchers and it had even instructed its designers to “add lemons so that it was a hybrid of Thatchers” and Aldi’s own ‘Taurus’ range.
