Skip to content
The brewery Thatchers, have lost a claim filed against budget retailer Aldi, over a rival product.
The brewery filed an intellectual property claim through the High Court, claiming that Aldi were selling a copycat version of their Thatchers Cloudy Lemon Cider product.
Thatchers claimed that Aldi were passing off as them, selling their Taurus branded Lemon cider. It was Thatchers’ position that Aldi were ‘riding on the coattails’ of the Thatchers brand and therefore taking advantage of the brewery’s reputation.
The two products were packaged as follows:
Thatchers put to the Court that a consumer would be misled into believing the two products were connected or that Thatchers had endorsed the Aldi product.
Aldi disputed this, stating that it is evident that Aldi brands are exclusive to Aldi and therefore there would be no confusion.
Considering both sides, the Judge Melissa Clarke took part in a blind taste test.
She ruled that there is no likelihood of confusion, despite the Aldi product’s packaging bringing to the mind the Thatchers product.
It was the Court’s decision that Aldi did not develop its product “with an intention to take advantage of the goodwill and reputation” of the Thatchers brand, and the existence of the product was not “detrimental” to the brewer’s reputation.
The claim against Aldi was therefore dismissed.
This is an interesting case and another one to add to Aldi’s history of intellectual property claims for their familiar looking products.
If you would like to discuss how to protect your brand, then please do get in touch with the team today.
