London, Aug 16 - Diageo, the world's biggest spirits group, said on Sunday it was taking legal action against British grocer J Sainsbury, over alleged copyright infringement of its Pimm's brand. Diageo alleges that Sainsbury's gin-based summer cocktail drink, Pitchers, which was launched in April, infringes its intellectual property rights.
"We can confirm that we have issued legal proceedings against Sainsbury's in relation to an intellectual property matter," Diageo said in a statement.
"It would be inappropriate for us to comment further other than to say that Sainsbury's is a valued customer of Diageo and we hope will continue to be so for many years. It is Diageo's firm intent that our strong trading relationship should not be affected by this discrete dispute."
Sainsbury, Britain's third-largest supermarket chain, said it would "vigorously defend" the allegations.
"Our customers are savvy enough to know exactly what they're buying, the clue is in the name, and we see no basis for such a claim," it said in a statement.