Aldi is facing a lawsuit from cider maker Thatchers for infringing the trade mark of its cloudy lemon cider‘, alleging that the German discount grocer’s Taurus brand “copycatted” its product.
The firm accused Aldi of gaining an “unfair advantage” by copying the product Thatchers released back in February 2020 “in both taste and appearance”.
As the High Court trial in London began this week, Judge Melissa Clarke, who is overseeing the case, was invited by Thatchers’ barrister Martin Howe KC in his written arguments to “conduct a taste test” of the rival products.
“We suggest that such a test should be conducted as a blind test, so that the court is not swayed by any descriptions provided by either party,” he said.
Lawyers for Thatchers argued the Taurus drink was “likely to misrepresent to consumers some commercial connection to Thatchers”.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
Howe said the Thatchers’ product was developed through “a comprehensive market analysis, feedback, and taste testing process, using over 25,000 litres of the initial cloudy lemon product”.
He said the company spent nearly £3m on marketing between 2020 and 2022 and had sold £21m worth of the cloudy lemon cider drink as of September last year.
The barrister said Aldi had achieved ‘extraordinarily high’ sales of its Taurus product, more than £1.4m, after a “lack both of development investment, or marketing spend”.
He said this “can only have been achieved by reason of Thatcher’s investment in the Thatchers Product”.
“Has there been a benefit to Aldi? Aldi’s sales figures are very large in circumstances where there has been no marketing investment, or investment in a product development process other than simply copying the Thatchers product in both taste and appearance,” Thatchers’ skeleton argument says.
“Thatchers says these large sales figures were achieved by reason of the investment Thatchers had made in the Thatchers product, and that Aldi has exploited, free ridden upon, and taken unfair advantage thereof.”
Aldi denies infringement and ‘passing off’ its product which released in May 2022, as one appearing to be from the family-run Somerset brewer.
In written arguments, Aldi lawyer Stephanie Wickenden said the court should “dismiss the claim in its entirety”.
She said: “The Aldi product is well distinguishable from the Thatchers product by reasons of its different brand name and logo.”
The barrister added of the packaging: “There are key differences in the stylisations of lemons and their leaves, and the words ‘cloudy’, ‘lemon’ and ‘cider’ are in a different order.
“In any event, Thatchers has no proprietary rights in the concept of such descriptive elements.”
The trial is set to continue with a ruling expected at a later date and comes after Aldi lost a court battle with Marks and Spencer at the start of the year after being accused of copying its light-up Christmas gin bottles.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
