Trade mark owners who are not using their mark may need to do more than simply filing and refiling in order to hang onto their rights, following Lidl Great Britain Ltd v Tesco Stores Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1433.
The dispute concerned Tesco’s Clubcard Prices loyalty discount scheme, which uses a yellow circle on a blue square with the words ‘Clubcard Prices’. Lidl claimed it was too similar to the background to its logo, a wordless blue square and yellow circle with a thin red border. Tesco denied this and counterclaimed for invalidity of Lidl’s registration which is not used in the UK in its registered form, on grounds of bad faith filing.
Overturning the High Court, the Court of Appeal allowed Tesco’s allegations to proceed.
Richard Kempner, partner at HLK, who represented Tesco, said: ‘Tesco has been permitted to continue to argue at trial that a wordless version of Lidl’s logo was periodically filed and refiled by Lidl in bad faith’.
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