By Kim Rahn
British luxury brand Burberry has won a copyright lawsuit against a Korean apparel company over its patented tartan pattern.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of Burberry, Thursday, saying Ssangbangwool violated the British firm’s trademark rights.
If higher courts confirm the ruling, the Korean company will be banned from selling men’s TRY brand underwear with the pattern, which have been sold mainly online. It will also have to pay 10 million won in compensation to Burberry.
“Both the patterns used by Ssangbangwool and Burberry are comprised of red and black lines on a beige background. It is highly likely that consumers may think the two are the same,” the court said in its ruling.
It said the worldwide brand of Burberry is also famous in Korea since it was introduced here in 1986, with annual sales in 2000 reaching 70 billion won.
“The pattern has been used for its products to show they are from Burberry, so it is not a mere design but a trademark,” it added.
“On Ssangbangwool’s products, the tartan pattern was used all over them while the brand mark of TRY was very small, so consumers are likely to misunderstand them as Burberry’s unless they carefully look at the brand name. This is in violation of trademark rights.”
Burberry filed the suit in March to claim Ssangbangwool pirated its tartan pattern for boxer shorts and pajamas.
The British firm has filed dozens of suits against Korean clothing makers since 2011 for patent violations. In a suit against LG Fashion in February, a local court made a compulsory mediation ruling to have LG pay 30 million won in compensation to Burberry, and to have Burberry retract its earlier demand to ban the Korean firm’s making and selling check-patterned products.