UK supermarket giants embroiled in bitter logo dispute

Two supermarket giants are currently embroiled in a court battle over the use of a yellow circle. German retailer Lidl has launched a complaint against UK's number one supermarket Tesco for using a design far too similar to its own logo to promote its cheap loyalty card offers.

The design in question features a blue background with a large yellow circle in the middle, which on paper sounds remarkably close to Lidl's logo. With Lidl asserting that Tesco is trying to capitalise on its reputation as a discount retailer, as well as accusing Tesco of "deception", does it have a point? While it's clear Lidl won't be included in our best logos anytime soon, it still has a distinctive trademark.

In a lawsuit, Lidl has accused Tesco of trying to “ride on [its] coattails” by using the yellow circle logo on a blue background. But this isn't the first time the two brands have come to blows over the design – according to Reuters, Tesco was granted permission to argue that Lidl had applied to trademark its yellow circle on a blue background with no wordmark "in bad faith".

But according to Guardian, Lidl has argued in this week's high court hearing that Tesco "deliberately copied Lidl’s branding to achieve precisely the transfer of reputation for good value that is occurring."

This is by no means the first time we've seen a supermarket take legal action to protect its yellow-and-blue logo. Back in 2021, Walmart unsuccessfully took on Kanye West after over a similarly star-shaped Yeezy logo. If you're inspired to create a logo that doesn't look like someone else's, take a look at our guide on how to design a logo.

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