Tesco PLC has been given the go-ahead to reinstate a High Court claim against Lidl as the supermarkets prepare for a legal battle over their use of a yellow circle logo.

The retail giants are suing each other over the use of a yellow circle on a blue square background, which is used by Lidl with a red ring surrounding the circle as its main logo and by Tesco to highlight offers available to members of its Clubcard scheme.

Lidl, which has used the logo in the UK since 1987, says Tesco’s use of its ‘Clubcard Prices’ sign since about September 2020 infringes its trademarks and amounts to passing off and copyright infringement.

The German discount chain owns various trademarks to protect its logo, including a ‘wordless mark’ – a version of its logo without the word Lidl in it, which has never been used in that form in the UK – and is bringing a High Court claim against Tesco.

Lidl’s case is that Tesco is ‘seeking deliberately to ride on the coat tails’ of its reputation as a ‘discounter’ supermarket and says the use of the sign in connection with Tesco’s Clubcard prices is ‘intended to, and does, cause members of the public to call to mind Lidl’s business and its trademarks’.

Tesco, in return, has filed a claim against Lidl and contends the wordless mark trademarks should be declared invalid as it has never been used by Lidl in the UK and alleges the application for it was made ‘solely for the purposes of deployment as a weapon in legal proceedings’.

Tesco’s counterclaim was struck out by a judge in June, at a preliminary stage of the case.

But, following a hearing at the Court of Appeal in October, Tesco can now go ahead with its case against Lidl – paving the way for a High Court showdown between the retail giants.

In a ruling on Wednesday, three senior judges concluded that Tesco’s claim has a ‘real prospect of success’ and overturned the earlier decision.

No date has yet been given for the trial.

source: PA

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