Rival supermarket Aldi has responded to its second legal battle with M&S in the only way it knows how: Free Cuthbert jokes.

Marks & Spencer is suing Aldi for allegedly 'copying' its ‘Light Up’ gin, just months after the Colin the Caterpillar copyright case.

M&S has filed court papers which say that Aldi’s gold flake blackberry and clementine gin liqueurs are “strikingly similar” to the Light Up gin it sells at Christmas and for which it holds a registered design.

It comes just months after a dispute over similarities between M&S' Colin the Caterpillar range and Aldi's Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake.

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 last copyright case saw Aldi's Twitter account go viral with puns and snappy come backs against M&S.

And it seems the social media managers have struck again - bringing back the #FreeCuthbert hashtag and announcing "#Round2".

Aldi's first swipe against M&S began with a simple retweet of a BBC article and the words: "Our lawyers gonna be so rich they be shopping in @marksandspencer soon #FreeCuthbert #Round2"

Since the first tweet, Aldi's Twitter trolling and Free Cuthbert memes have left thousands amused.

"We Colin our lawyers," Aldi joked.

In the court papers, M&S has also provided a number examples of comparisons made in the press between the two products, which it says support its claim.

Both retailer’s gins come in a bell-shaped bottle with a light in the base, which illuminates edible gold flakes in the liquid.

The Aldi light up gin is about £6 cheaper than the basic £20 M&S version.

In April 2021, M&S started legal action against Aldi in an effort to protect its Colin the Caterpillar cake with a claim that its rival’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar product infringed its trademark.

M&S, which lodged an intellectual property claim with the High Court, argued the similarity of Aldi’s product led consumers to believe they were of the same standard and “ride on the coat-tails” of M&S’s reputation with the product.

Aldi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Press Association.