Lidl Vs. Tesco: High Court Infringement Dispute

In its judgement on 19 April 2023, the High Court of England and Wales held that Tesco has infringed the yellow-and-blue logo of Lidl in copyright, trade mark, and passing off. However, the court also found that Lidl registered its trade marks in Bad Faith.

Here the marks in dispute were Lidl’s yellow-and-blue logo with and without the text ‘Lidl’, and Tesco’s Clubcard mark used for promoting its Clubcard prices.

In its judgement, the Count held that the marks were sufficiently similar from the view of the average consumer, including being visually similar and Tesco having taken unfair advantage of Lidl’s reputation for low-priced goods. Tesco was therefore found to have infringed on the trade mark of Lidl in respect of the Mark with text, passing off and copyright, as an original artistic work.

Tesco’s main argument in defence was that Lidl registered the 1995 mark (and subsequent applications in 2002, 2005, and 2007) in bad faith, arguing that Lidl had no intention to use the marks, and was not used for the 5-year periods post-registration. The court agreed with Tesco and invalidated the 4 trade marks.

It has now been left to Tesco and Lidl to liaise over the terms of the Order and reach an amicable settlement. We shall report any further published updates on the settlement of this matter when they are made available.