A fashion expert has told the High Court that the type of woman's top at the centre of a landmark legal dispute between UK clothing stores and Dunnes Stores was "a very common design" and she had found 580,000 references on the internet to such a top.
Susan Maher, who runs a website selling discounted high fashion items, said the "faux shrug cami top" in question was available in the marketplace before Karen Millen shops launched their version in December 2005.
She said the concept has been around since the early twentieth century and could be found in fashion items in the 1930s, 1950s and up to the 1990s. It was used during warm up routines by ballet dancers and in the 1990s was integrated into jumpers and tops, she said.
She was giving evidence on behalf of Dunnes Stores in its defence of a landmark legal action taken against the company in the Commercial Court by Mosaic Fashions alleging Dunnes Stores copied items of clothing and put them on sale after they were launched by the UK companies.
Today was the third day of the action by Mosaic, the parent company of Karen Millen Ltd, Coast Ltd and Whistles Ltd, against Dunnes.
The companies claim Dunnes produced almost identical women's clothing items to tops produced by them, thus infringing their design rights as protected by a new European regulation of 2001 on Unregistered Community Designs.
The UK companies are not seeking damages but want an order for all necessary accounts and enquiries. Dunnes Stores have denied the claims.
The case is the first to be taken under the new regulation in Ireland and the first case in Europe involving fashion items. The European regulation is designed to protect design rights and to prevent their unauthorised copying.
Yesterday, Ms Maher told Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for Dunnes, that the Karen Millen top was "a very common design" and she would have come across it in vintage designs and in the last 10 years.
In her view, the Karen Millen top would not create "a different overall impression" from similar tops. "It is evident that this design has been around for a very long time and is very familiar to the consumer."
She said she could not find similar styles on high fashion websites because this type of top was "too commonplace to feature on the catwalk." "There are no High Street websites," she added.
Ms Maher handed in a number of her own personal tops to the court as exhibits and described to the court why she thought they would create a different overall impression than the Karen Millen top.
These included three Marni tops and a Miu Miu cardigan. She also said that a Karen Millen shirt, which is also the subject of the action, did not differ from any other shirt that has been on the market for the past ten or fifteen years.
Cross examined by Mr Michael Mc Dowell SC, for Mosaic, Ms Maher said she was first approached last May by solicitors for Dunnes Stores to give her opinion in the case and was asked to research the market.
She told Mr Mc Dowell that she was "an informed user" and there was no difference in overall impression between the Karen Millen shirt and another Paul Smith designed shirt.
Ms Helen James, who has been involved in the fashion industry for 14 years, told Mr Nesbitt that the "faux shrug over a cami top" style has been in existence in the fashion world for a number of years.
"It would be a style of sweater I would be very familiar with," she added.
She said the Karen Millen shirt was a striped shirt and added: "It's not something I would look at and say I haven't seen it before."
The case before Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan continues tomorrow
