Specsavers intends to claim damages following a legal win against Asda, after the grocer used the trademark ‘spec saver’ phrase in an optical advertising campaign.
Specsavers won part of its court case at the High Court in April 2010, when Walmart-owned Asda was found to have infringed trademark rules by using the strapline ‘be a real spec saver at Asda’ promotion.
The rest of the case was rejected by the High Court and Specasvers appealed against this.
The Court of Appeal has today ruled that another strapline used by Asda – ‘spec savings at Asda’ – and the use of the double ellipse logo, similar to Specsavers’ own, were also infringements.
Specsavers founder Dame Mary Perkins said: “We welcome fair competition, which is good for customers but, as both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have found, Asda was deliberately mimicking our advertising and were well aware of the risks they were running.
“When we first raised this with Asda, their response was to issue a press release saying that we would have to sue them as they would not back down… so we did.”
Asda’s appeal on the first ruling was dismissed.
But the Court of Appeal added that elements of trademark law needed to be clarifired by the European Court of Justice before the remainder of the specsavers’ appeal could be determined.
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