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.
Ms Susan Maher, who runs a fashion website selling discounted high fashion items, said the "faux shrug cami top" in question was available in the marketplace before Karen Millen launched their version in December 2005. She said the concept has been around since the early 20th century and could be found in fashion items in the 1930s and 1950s.
She was giving evidence on behalf of Dunnes Stores in its defence of a 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.
Yesterday 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 that Dunnes produced almost identical women's clothing items to a number of 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 inquiries. Dunnes Stores have denied the claims.Yesterday, Ms Maher told 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."
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. 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 10 or 15 years. Cross-examined by Michael McDowell SC, for Mosaic, Ms Maher said she was "an informed user" and there was no difference in overall impression between the Karen Millen shirt and another Paul Smith-designed shirt.