Supreme Court rejects Dunnes’ Karen Millen appeal
Dunnes Stores must pay for both dismissal order and costs order, following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of its appeal in Karen Millen case
Print25 July 2014
The legal tete-a-tete between Karen Millen and Dunnes Stores over so-called ‘copycat’ designs finally ended on Monday, 21 July, when the Supreme Court dismissed Dunnes’ appeal.
The Supreme Court has ruled that Dunnes Stores must now pay for both the dismissal order and costs order brought against it. This will result in a significant legal costs bill for the retailer.
The dismissal was decreed by the Supreme Court, following a European Court of Justice ruling last month rejecting key arguments advanced by Dunnes.
The court told lawyers for both parties that it would give reasons for the dismissal in a written judgment later.
Several questions had been referred to the European court by the Supreme Court regarding the interpretation of EU regulations on the protection of fashion designs.
In 2008, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan ruled in the High Court that Dunnes, in offering for sale a black knit top and blue and brown shirts, infringed Karen Millen’s rights to unregistered community design under council regulation (EC) number 6/2002 in each of the three designs in question.
Dunnes had appealed to the Supreme Court where it argued Karen Millen had failed to prove the individual character of the designs and was therefore not the holder of an unregistered community design. However, the chain’s argument proved unsuccessful.
Related Articles
Dunnes stores secures approval for Crumlin development →
Fans 0
Followers