Lidl "Romaines" Calm With Certified Plant-based Range

Lidl has become the UK's first major retailer to use The Vegetarian Society UK (TVSUK)'s "Plant-Based" Logo on its product packaging. This follows the rebrand and expansion of Lidl's Vemondo Plant! range of food products, which will now bear the logo below to indicate that they have been certified by TVSUK as being wholly plant-based:

The use of this sign on food packaging provides shoppers with a visible flag, confirming that it contains only plant-based ingredients. How does it guarantee this? TVSUK has sought registration of the logo as a certification trade mark.

A certification mark is defined in Section 50(1) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 as "a mark indicating that the goods and services in connection with which it is used are certified by the proprietor of the mark in respect of origin, material, mode of manufacture of goods or performance of services, quality, accuracy or other characteristics." The owners of a certification mark do not use the mark