The European Court of Justice has ruled that Dunnes Stores infringed on copyright held by high-street chain Karen Millen by copying the designs of a number of their garments.
The landmark ruling was confirmed today, after Karen Millen took the case in respect of a black top and two shirts that it had released for sale in December 2005. It was claimed that Dunnes put similar items on sale under its Savida range in 2006 and by doing so, infringed Karen Millen’s rights to unregistered community design.
The copyright means that the company’s designs are protected for three years but Dunnes Stores challenged a previous ruling against it, claiming in the Supreme Court that Millen had failed to prove the individual character of the designs at issue and therefore the grounds of unregistered community design were not relevant.
The court referred a number of questions about the case to Europe and it’s understood that today’s ruling could have widespread ramifications for many retailers that stock garments inspired by designer collections.
The case will now return to the Supreme Court.
