Aldi steals caterpillar cake design from Marks & Spencer!
Naughty trademark infringer Aldi is at it again, this time targeting retail giant Marks & Spencer with their knockoff goods! We’ve seen Aldi knock off bock, their sister company Trader Joe’s has been seen knocking off some other goods as well. This time, Marks & Spencer have accused Aldi of swiping the design of the Marks & Spencer “Colin the Caterpillar” cake, and launching their own “Cuthbert the Caterpillar” cake. Aldi is being accused of knocking off copying stealing Marks and Spencer’s beloved Colin the Caterpillar cake design. Aldi is very cheekily denying that Marks and Spencer has any right to said design.
As ever, the likelihood of success on the trademark infringement claim hinges upon the question of the likelihood of consumer confusion, and also perhaps a claim of “dilution” of Marks & Spencer’s famous (or is it? That’s another question for the finder of fact…) Colin the Caterpillar chocolate roll, which Marks & Spencer has been making and selling for more than 30 years.
So let’s go ahead and look at Marks and Spencer’s Caterpillar cake design. They have been producing this cake for 30 years. And here it is. You can see their caterpillar cake right here. And I have no idea what these little guys are, but this is the the best picture I could find of this cake. And it’s a sort of chocolate roll cake. And I guess you’re intended to slice it and serve it up maybe for, I don’t know, Easter dinner or something.
Now let me show you the cheeky Aldi knockoff that they’re calling Cuthbert the Caterpillar. So Aldi has created their own Caterpillar cake and has made it look very much like the Colin, the caterpillar, big googly eyes and all, are they the same?
It looks pretty similar to me and they’re even being cheeky about the whole thing. Aldi stores is sort of poking fun at Marks and Spencer for asserting their trademark rights to Colin the caterpillar, and they’ve developed this hashtag #FreeCuthbert.
So it’s pretty funny, the whole thing, but what can we learn from this? Just because you don’t think it deserves trademark protection, your competitor that you’re knocking off might take umbrage at your attempts to hijack their 30 year old caterpillar cake design and might just sue you for your cheeky knockoff. So, as I’ve always said, it is best to stay completely away from any famous marks and make up your own creative material, make up your own trademarks, make up your own caterpillar cakes. Don’t copy other people’s trademarks.
This is yet another case to illustrate that 1) you can’t just make your own version of someone else’s goods and get away with it, and 2) you should stay away from any famous trademarks, because if you don’t, you are likely to get sued.
I’m Angela Langlotz find me on YouTube. I’ve got a huge YouTube channel there. I’ve got almost 500 videos. You can find me there at video dot TrademarkDoctor.net forward slash YouTube. I’m also on Facebook at Facebook dot com forward slash TrademarkDoctor. And you can find my blog at TrademarkDoctor.net. If you have trademark or copyright questions, drop them into the comments below the video. I will answer them on i future live.
I’m on Facebook! “Like” my facebook page, to be notified every time I go LIVE. Do you have trademark questions? Message me on the Trademark Doctor Facebook page, and I’ll answer your questions on a future Live video.
Contact Dallas, Texas trademark attorney Angela Langlotz today to get started on a trademark application for your valuable brand.