Marks & Spencer has started legal action against Aldi in an effort to protect its Colin the Caterpillar cake with a claim that its rival’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar product infringes its trademark.
M&S, which lodged an intellectual property claim with the High Court this week, is arguing the similarity of Aldi’s product leads consumers to believe they are of the same standard and “ride on the coat-tails” of M&S’s reputation with the product.
M&S wants Aldi to remove the product from sale and agree not to sell anything similar in the future.
The product is central to M&S’s partnership with cancer charity Macmillan and the retailer has created a Colin product for the annual World’s Biggest Coffee Morning fundraising event.
The cake is a sponge with milk chocolate and buttercream, topped with chocolate sweets and a smiling white chocolate face.
A spokesman said: “Because we know the M&S brand is special to our customers and they expect only the very best from us, love and care goes into every M&S product on our shelves.
“We want to protect Colin, Connie and our reputation for freshness, quality, innovation and value.”
Aldi declined to comment.
It is understood Aldi’s cake is a seasonal product and has not been on sale since February.
The M&S original has spawned a range of imitators since its launch, such as Sainsbury’s Wiggles, Tesco’s Curly, Morris by Morrisons, the Co-op’s Charlie, Cecil by Waitrose and Asda’s Clyde.
