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

The features relied on by the Claimant are:

The issue and extent of subsistence of design right for Design 1 is tied up with the date at which it came into existence. This is because the bikini top designed by the Claimant is what is known as a “multiway” design. This means that the straps can be threaded in different ways through the panels to allow the garment to be worn in different ways. The interaction matters because the Claimant first designed the panels in 2011, to be worn with straps in a number of different configurations which she says are different to Design 1. Shown below is the 2011 version:

Note that the Claimant herself sought to promote the versatility of the design – which is achieved by threading the straps differently. See for example the third design from the left in the 1^st and 3^rd rows above which both have the tie for the top strap positioned between the panels.

The relevance of this is that if 2011 is the date at which an article was first made to the design, then design right would have expired before the first acts of alleged infringement by the Defendants.

It was not until March 2016 that the Claimant first showed the straps threaded through the panels and configured round the body in the way shown in Design 1 on her cwtchycwtchy website. The following display could be found on her Instagram page in 2016 and illustrates Design 1 (see the second design on the third row) as compared to the other older “box” designs: