A LANDMARK legal battle over fashion designs began yesterday when Dunnes Stores was taken to court by a British retail group which claims the Irish store copied its designs.
It is the first time in Ireland that a company has sued another under a law which protects unregistered designs from copying.
Former Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell, SC, opened the first of three actions by Karen Millen Ltd, Coast Ltd and Whistles Ltd -- all part of British retail giant Mosaic Fashions -- against Dunnes.
The action centres on a Karen Millen shirt and sweater which went on sale in December 2005, a bow-tie top sold by Coast and another top sold by Whistles.
The companies claim that Dunnes produced almost identical products which infringed their copyright as protected by the European Union law of 2001 on Unregistered Community Designs.
The companies are not seeking damages but want an account of the profits made by Dunnes as a result of the sale of the disputed items. Dunnes denies the claims.
Mr Mc Dowell said the Karen Millen sweater and shirt were both designed in house for use in Karen Millen stores.
Evidence would be heard, he said, that shortly after their launch, exact copies or almost exact copies were commissioned by Dunnes who gave them to fashion houses to manufacture for replication.
The sweater was made in China and shipped through Korea to Ireland. The shirt was manufactured in Turkey.
He said "parasitical copying'' was taking place and they were not just "innocent or coincidental similarities''.
"These are direct copies,'' he said, adding that they infringed Mosaic's rights of unregistered community design. "These are direct and conscious copies. Any differences are unplanned.
"I'll be arguing that in this case if two women walked into a room , one wearing one design and one wearing another, another third woman would immediately recognise that they are dressed in the same clothes."
He said the court would have an order form from Dunnes to a fashion house which referred to a "Karen Millen jumper''. Evidence would also be given that the Karen Millen shirt was physically given to a manufacturer to replicate. There were also two receipts for Karen Millen items in March of last year -- one from Brown Thomas and one from a store in Dundrum.
Clare Hallam, a senior knitwear designer for Karen Millen, told Mr McDowell she designed the sweater for the company's market, which was "youngish females with a very specific customer profile''.
"She is figure conscious and likes expensive, well-designed clothes,'' said Ms Hallam, who has a degree in knitting and worked in New York for designers who show at New York's fashion week.
The case continues today before Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan.
