Thatchers loses trademark battle with Aldi over lemon cider

Drinks company Thatchers has lost a court battle with supermarket Aldi over their competing cloudy lemon cider drinks.

Basically, Thatchers sued Aldi over allegations of infringing their trademark with the supermarket's Taurus brand of cloudy lemon cider, claiming it 'copycatted' their own quaffable beverage.

However, in a ruling today (24 January) Judge Melissa Clarke dismissed the Thatchers case as she concluded there was a 'low degree of similarity' between the two drinks and it wasn't likely that customers would get the two mixed up.

Thatchers had alleged that Aldi copied their drinks brand to gain an 'unfair advantage', claiming that the supermarket had aped their cloudy lemon cider 'in both taste and appearance'.

If you think this is a weird thing for a drinks company and a supermarket to be getting into a fight over then remember Aldi has already had to fight the battle of the caterpillar cake, and they still seem to be quite annoyed about all that hullabaloo.

Thatchers

Legal representatives for Thatchers said that Aldi's Taurus brand was 'likely to misrepresent to consumers some commercial connection to Thatchers'.

Aldi responded by admitting they'd used Thatchers as a 'benchmark' but denied infringement.

Lawyers for the supermarket also denied that Aldi was 'passing off' their cloudy lemon cider as Thatchers and said they weren't trying to ride on the drinks company's reputation either.

The judge said she could see that Aldi's cloudy lemon cider 'would call to mind' the Thatchers drink, but decided that the supermarket had not tried to pass their own drink off as Thatchers and they weren't damaging any reputations.

An Aldi spokesperson said: "There’s nothing cloudy about this judgment. It’s clear cut. Aldi exclusive brands are just that: exclusive to Aldi while leading the market on quality and price."

Aldi

Martin Thatcher said his family firm was 'compelled' to bring the case forward as they were 'concerned' that Aldi's packaging on their drink resembled their own.

He said: "Despite the decision not going our way, we still believe taking this action was the right thing to do.

"We care about creating the perfect cider and thanks to a proud history of four generations of expert cider makers innovating and investing, we have done just that."

Part of the trial involved Judge Clarke conducting a blind taste test of the two drinks and she said they were 'very similar' but could tell they were 'different'.

She said she had never tasted cloudy lemon cider before.

This victory for Aldi comes after they lost a court battle with M&S over accusations of copying their light-up Christmas gin bottles.

Aldi has appealed against that verdict and will expect a judgment on the matter at a later date.