Marks & Spencer has 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 infringes its trademark.

M&S, which lodged an intellectual property claim with the High Court last week, is arguing 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.

Colin the Caterpillar. Picture: Colin the Caterpillar / Marks and Spencer //Instagram

Colin the Caterpillar. Picture: Colin the Caterpillar / Marks and Spencer / Instagram

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.

The cake is a sponge with milk chocolate and buttercream, topped with chocolate sweets and a smiling white chocolate face.

Readers took to the Journal facebook to voice their thoughts on the debate.

Andy Rees posted: "I'm standing with cuthbert!"

Kay Louise Redhead said: "Every supermarket does a version of the caterpillar cake."

Samantha Wood said: "Really how petty. A caterpillar isn't copyrighted."

Cathy Lloyd said: "This is why Colin shouldn't be copied. Can't beat the original Colin."

Lucy Bunn posted: "Oh dear, handbags at dawn."

M&S has stores in Prestatyn and Llandudno.

It is understood Aldi’s cake is a seasonal product and has not been on sale since February.

The M&S original has spawned a range of imitators since its launch, such as Sainsbury’s Wiggles, Tesco’s Curly, Morris by Morrisons, the Co-op’s Charlie, Cecil by Waitrose and Asda’s Clyde.

The Colin the Caterpillar Instagram page posted: "You may have seen I'm in the news.

"I won't be commenting.

"But please continue to show me your support. It means a lot #OGColin."