Tesco has lost its appeal seeking to overturn a ruling that it had infringed Lidl’s trademark relating to its ubiquitous yellow circle design upon a blue square background. The action started in 2020 following Tesco’s use of a similar design to promote it’s ‘Clubcard Prices’ scheme.
The Court of Appeal rejected Tesco’s application on 19th March effectively re-affirming that Tesco had taken unfair advantage of Lidl’s established reputation for providing low prices.
Tesco is potentially now faced with the prospect of removing millions of the logos from its stores and on-line presence within weeks and having to incur several million pounds in any re-branding exercise. This is in addition to having to abide by an injunction preventing it from using the design going forward and as yet, undecided damages.
The only relief for Tesco was that the Court of Appeal confirmed it had not breached any copyright laws as compared to the trademark infringement itself. It will be interesting to watch Tesco develop its new branding in the months ahead.