WHAT is your stance on the Colin the Caterpillar row? It has been giving many people on social media a good laugh. Here are some of our favourite social media posts from the row.

Colin the Caterpillar in one of the most British things ever. Twitter user Franhendersonx reminded us all about the time a Colin the Caterpillar cake was used to mark the second birthday of a pothole that a Nottingham village had been complaining about.

 

 

Abcelya on Twitter came up with a good idea to settle the debate.

 

 

JasonAshford89 admitting what a lot of us probably did – buying both for a taste test.

 

 

131Jj giving Shakespeare a new twist.

 

 

Midgetellx on the Britishness of the row.

 

 

PE_Crawford wins the film poster design.

 

 

MrsGtweets20 shows how the court case could look

 

 

Of course, while it is a lot of fun on social media (even with Aldi themselves getting in on the act), there is actually a legal case being lodged by Marks and Spencer against Aldi for how similar their Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake is to M&S’ Colin.

The move comes from the British retailer in an attempt to protect its Colin the Caterpillar cake claiming that Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar product infringes its trademark.

M&S, which lodged an intellectual property claim with the High Court last week, is arguing that 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 cake is a sponge with milk chocolate and buttercream, topped with chocolate sweets and a smiling white chocolate face. All supermarkets have their own version of the caterpillar cake.

M&S has three trademarks relating to Colin, which the retailer believes means Colin has acquired and retains an enhanced distinctive character and reputation.

A spokesman for M&S 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.

“So we want to protect Colin, Connie and our reputation for freshness, quality, innovation and value.”

But it seems Aldi have seen the funny side of the case, mocking Marks and Spencer’s famous marketing line.

Tweeting from the official Twitter account, Aldi said: “This is not just any court case, this is… #FreeCuthbert”

M&S launched Colin the Caterpillar around 30 years ago and his appearance has been substantially unchanged since around 2004, except for adaptations for events such as Halloween and Christmas, and related products such as Connie the Caterpillar.

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.