Tesco wins appeal in Lidl trademark dispute

Tesco has won an appeal in court which will mean it can argue at trial that Lidl applied for trademarks for a yellow circle against a blue background in “bad faith”. 

It comes as Tesco filed a counterclaim against Lidl last year, after the discount supermarket launched a lawsuit that claimed Tesco was trying to “ride its coat-tails” by using the logo for its clubcard prices discount scheme. 

Lidl said its background, a blue square containing a yellow circle with a thin red line, is a “wordless trademark” and is seeking to ban Tesco from using the similar background on its ‘Clubcard prices’ signs at its stores.

According to Reuters, Tesco argued in its counterclaim that Lidl registered a trademark of its logo as a “legal weapon” to support the trademark over its more widely used logo.

While a lower court dismissed Tesco’s case on bad faith in June, this week, the Court of Appeal in London ruled that the argument should be part of a trial of Lidl’s initial lawsuit and Tesco’s counterclaim, which is set to be heard at the High Court next year.

A Tesco spokesperson told Retail Sector: “We are pleased with today’s decision. We continue to deny and strongly defend this claim, and remain very confident of our position for the trial next year.”

A Lidl spokesperson told Reuters: “This appeal is only a small procedural aspect of the case and we remain confident in the outcome of the trial in 2023.”