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Is this the end for copycat designer clothing? |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Thursday, 26 July 2007 |
 An article from independent.ie highlights the significance of the suit faced by the Irish retailer Dunnes Stores. Three rival stores accuse the Irish chain of selling 'knock offs' of their "high-end bow tie top". The significance is that the new European regulation from 2002 gives designers a whole rake of new rights over their
unregistered designs and the law and its application has yet to be tested in an Irish court.
Coast (one of the accuser) claims Dunnes infringed its intellectual property rights by producing and
selling a "bow tie top", which Coast says was almost identical to a "high-end
bow tie top" that was produced by its designers. The Coast version of the top
began retailing at €60 while Dunnes sold its version for €25.
The situations detailed in documents filed by Karen Millen, Whistles
and Coast is not unusual and has been seen before. As a matter of fact,
Dunnes has been down this road before, as indeed have several other
Irish retailers. However, this time, things are a little different.
Under old artistic copyright law it was difficult for a designer to claim rights
unless the work met a fairly high standard and could be described as a work of
artistic craftsmanship.
Then in 2002 they brought in the Community Unregistered Design Right (CUDR), and now a
designer gets automatic protection for new designs for three years.
This automatic protection is easier to enforce than traditional copyright
because designers don't only have to prove that they've created this design,
they've made it available by showing it or selling it, and somebody has copied
it... it only matters that
the design has been copied.
Bob Clark of UCD's law school.
This is certainly a case to keep an eye on. If it does go to trial, whatever the outcome, it will become case law for other future cases regarding CUDR.
I personally don't quite understand CUDR because I often confuse myself with UK Unregistered Design Rights, UK Registered Design Rights and Community Registered Design Right. However, I will keep my eye on this case and hopefully it will help me understand it better.
Do have a read of this article on CUDR from independent.ie
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