News

Author: Chris Bennett

The Specsavers court case against Asda has been delayed until April as the supermarket argued that its lawyers would be too busy working in-store in the run up to Christmas to prepare the case.

Specsavers (News 30.10. 09) wanted the case to be held urgently in January. It is suing over the new Asda Opticians logo, which is said closely resembled its own and the slogan ‘Be a real spec saver at Asda’ which is used in store, on Asda’s website and on the Twitter social networking site.

Asda’s counsel Hugo Cuddigan confirmed the policy of lawyers working on the shop floor and argued that to defend the case properly it wanted to survey its customers to discover if they were truly confused by the new logo and slogan.

Mr Justice Kitchin said that to prepare for a trial expected to last for four days, April would be more appropriate. The court heard that Asda had no plans to use the slogan on advertising after this week, however it would continue to use the logo in stores and online.

Specsavers marketing director Richard Holmes said: ‘We are very pleased that Asda has now agreed in court to remove any reference to being a spec saver from any of its advertising as soon as possible and that the judge has ordered that an expedited trial should take place in April.’

Nik Langrish-Dixon head of optical at Asda responded:

‘They're [Specsavers] making a spectacle of themselves. We're simply putting an end to unfair prices and giving all customers no-nonsense low prices that they can trust, no matter what their prescription.

‘No headline prices, no hidden extras and for the first time, anti- reflective and anti scratch as standard. SpecSavers clearly thinking we're doing something right else why have they followed our lead offering all kids glasses for free plus UV treatment?’.

Our court reporter writes:

Lawyers came up with the most bizarre reason yet for delaying a case which is heading for the High Court. ASDA successfully managed to get the case delayed until April. The delay was granted after Mr Justice Kitchin was told of a bizarre practice under which ASDA’s lawyers would to busy working in the supermarkets in the run up to Christmas to prepare the case in time for a January hearing.

This, the judge was told, included not only the supermarket’s in-house lawyers, but also lawyers from the city firm of Pinsent Masons.

Specsavers is suing over the new ASDA Opticians logo, which they say too closely resembles its own, as well as an advertising slogan used in ASDA stores, on its website and on social networking site Twitter.

The slogan says : "Be a real spec saver at ASDA."

Adrian Speck, counsel for Specsavers, told the judge of the reason that ASDA claimed they would not be ready for a hearing in January.

"They are trying to suggest that they cannot deal with this case because the external lawyers have to work on the shopfloor," he said.

 

He added that their stance was: "They're really rather busy, the lawyers are stacking tomatoes" and continued : "I haven't asked my learned friend what day he is on the checkout."

 

ASDA's counsel, Hugo Cuddigan confirmed the policy saying that lawyers would indeed be working on the shopfloor.

 

He added: "The senior equity partner will be doing it amongst others. My learned friend may pour scorn on the policy of having executives work on the shop floor but that is how it does work."

 

Mr Cuddigan also argued that, in order to defend the case properly, ASDA wishes to carry out an extensive survey of its customers to discover if they are truly confused by the use of the new logo and slogan, and that this would be difficult to do during the very busy Christmas period.

 

The plight of the lawyers facing shop floor work moved Mr Justice Kitchin to give them some breathing space after the Christmas store rush.

He ruled that it was appropriate to expedite the trial in this case, because of the "real risk" that SpecSavers would continue to suffer loss and damage pending the trial of the action.

 

However, he held that, bearing in mind the time needed to prepare for a trial which is expected to last four days, April would be a more appropriate month. He ordered that the trial should be listed on the first available date after 13 April.

 

The court heard that ASDA has no plans to use the "Be a real spec saver at ASDA" slogan on advertising any more after this week, however it does intend to go on using the new logo in stores and online.

 

During the hearing, Mr Speck alleged that ASDA planned to use a new slogan, "Should have gone to ASDA", echoing SpecSavers famous catchphrase.

 

But Mr Cuddigan said that ASDA had no intention of using such a slogan.

 

Mr Speck told the judge that, since the trial will be three months later than his clients were hoping, they may seek to apply for an interim injunction that could potentially block ASDA from using the logo pending the resolution of the trial.

 

 

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