Stephanie Wickenden comments on Lidl’s successful trademark claim against Tesco

Stephanie Wickenden has commented in The Sunday Times on the recent judgment in Lidl v Tesco, whereby Lidl was successful in its claim that Tesco had infringed its copyright by using the yellow circle and blue square for their Clubcard promotions.

Stephanie said that Tesco had “reasonable grounds for an appeal on the passing off and copyright elements of the claim”.

Stephanie also commented in the Law Society Gazette and described the "novel finding" as "unusual," further commenting "there have only been a handful of cases where this type of misrepresentation has been argued, often in a pharmaceutical context".

"The "equivalence" found here was not of effect or purpose but of price; Tesco was found to have misrepresented that its products were Lidl price-matched based on the yellow circle on the blue background. This is a novel finding, and it will be interesting to see if it remains confined to the unusual facts of this particular case, or it starts a trend for further claims based on equivalence rather than confusion."

Stephanie has considerable experience in the legal issues which arose in this case. She regularly acts for Aldi, including currently in a case brought by Thatchers cider and acted for Glaxo Group in Glaxo Group v Sandoz (& ors), which was referred to as authority for the passing off claim in Lidl v Tesco.

Articles:

• The Sunday Times (paywalled)
• The Law Gazette

Stephanie’s comments have also been carried in Commercial Disputes Resolution, New Law Journal, and the Legal Diary. These articles can be accessed here:

• Commercial Disputes Resolution (paywalled)
• New Law Journal
• The Legal Diary 

For more information on Stephanie's practice, click here.