Gabicci Plc v Dunnes Stores Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: MISS JUSTICE MELLA CARROLL
• Judgment Date: 31 July 1991
• Neutral Citation: 1993 WJSC-HC 3606
• Docket Number: No. 8941p/1991
• Court: High Court
• Date: 31 July 1991

GABICCI PLC v. DUNNES STORES LTD

BETWEEN

GABICCI PLC

PLAINTIFF

AND

DUNNES STORES LTD

DEFENDANT

1993 WJSC-HC 3606

No. 8941p/1991

THE HIGH COURT

Synopsis:

INJUNCTION

Interlocutory

Fair question - Convenience - Balance - Damages - Inadequate

remedy - Menswear - Sweaters - Passing off defendant's goods as

goods of plaintiff - (1991/8941 P - Carroll J. - 31/7/91) G7hG7

|Gabicci Plc. v. Dunnes Stores Ltd.|

PASSING OFF

Design

Clothing - Men - Sweaters - Replica - Injunction - Fair question - Balance of convenience - Damages inadequate remedy - (1991/8941 P - Carroll J. - 31/7/91)

|Gabicci Plc. v. Dunnes Stores Ltd.|

Citations:

ADIDAS V CHARLES O'NEILL & CO LTD 1983 ILRM 112

1 NOTE OF JUDGMENT DELIVERED BY MISS JUSTICE MELLA CARROLL ON 31st JULY 1991

2 Gabicci Plc, the Plaintiffs, are designers of co-ordinated casual men's clothing. Each year they bring out new designs which the Plaintiff claims are unmistakeably Gabicci.

3 One range of designs known as the "M Range" generally incorporates a deep Vee in the front of the pattern of the design with the Vee broken by two suede strips and continuing pattern offset. The sweaters are made in a particular kind of dense knit and also incorporate tucked or ridged stitching. Gabicci have built up a trade in up-market men's clothing shops for their product which retails at the expensive end of the price range. Their share of the retail market in Ireland amounts to £2 million gross out of a world turnover of £20 million.

4 In or about March of this year Dunnes Stores started selling two lines of sweaters which to all intents and purposes look like two sweaters designed by Gabicci the previous year, but at half the price. Insofar as I could judge, it is extremely difficult to tell them apart. If you saw the two Gabicci sweaters in one room and then walked into another room and saw the two Dunnes Stores” sweaters, I think you would say they were the same though in fact they are not, stitch for stitch, identical.

5 Gabicci claim that people think they have an agreement with Dunnes Stores for the sale of Gabicci sweaters under Dunnes Stores own brand label, that is St. Bernard. They claim that because Dunnes Stores” sweaters retail at half the price no one will buy the current Gabicci sweaters.

6 Dunnes Stores got their sweaters made by the Italian factory which makes the Gabicci sweaters. It is an independent company and is also called Gabicci. Dunnes Stores claim that they asked the manufacturer, Mr. Casagrande, for a design that would be unique to them. But Mr. Casagrande, in...