Claim No: IP-2022-000099 - [2025] EWHC 805 (IPEC)

The alleged infringements of Design 2 (and alleged infringing articles 3(i), 4(i) and 5(iv)) are different to the others sold by the Defendants in that none of them originated in-house. All were instead designed and supplied by third-party wholesale suppliers, as evidenced by purchase orders. If they were copied from Ms. Edwards, any copying would have been carried out by the third parties.

I have no way of telling how the third-party wholesale suppliers came up with these designs. However, the second to fifth points which I have made above in relation to Design 1 all apply equally here. In particular, the age of the Claimant’s design, the low likelihood of an old social media feed with limited followers being copied and, given the very low originality in the design, the coincidental chance of someone coming up with a similar design all apply. On the balance of probabilities I find that copying has not taken place.