Thatchers cider loses trademark battle with Aldi

Somerset cidermaker Thatchers has lost a High Court trademark battle with supermarket chain Aldi over rival cider products.

The brewer, which is based at Myrtle Farm in Sandford, sued the German discounter for allegedly infringing the trademark of its “cloudy lemon cider”, claiming that Aldi’s Taurus brand “copycatted” its product. But the judge dismissed Thatchers' case.

Judge Melissa Clarke concluded there was a “low degree of similarity” between the rival products and “no likelihood of confusion” for consumers.

At a trial in London in November, Thatchers accused Aldi of gaining an “unfair advantage” by copying the product the family-run cider business released in February 2020 “in both taste and appearance”. Lawyers representing Thatchers argued that the Taurus drink was “likely to misrepresent to consumers some commercial connection to Thatchers”.

The German retailer, which operates more than 1,000 stores in the UK, accepted it used the Thatchers product as a “benchmark” but denied infringement.

Aldi lawyers also denied it was “passing off” its product, launched in May 2022, as one appearing to be from Thatchers and rejected claims that it was “riding on the coat-tails of the reputation” of the Thatchers brand.

Judge Clarke said she was “satisfied on the balance of probabilities” that seeing the Aldi product “would call to mind” the Thatchers trademark, causing “a link in the mind of the average consumer”.

But she concluded that Aldi had not infringed and was not liable for “passing off”, adding that the German supermarket’s product did not take unfair advantage of nor was “detrimental” to the reputation of the Thatchers trademark.

Judge Clarke found that Aldi did not develop its product “with an intention to take a