Dulong Fine Jewelry (formerly Marianne Dulong – “Dulong”) has won a case before the Maritime and Commercial High Court (Sø- og Handelsretten) concerning infringement of Dulong’s copyright.
The case concerned Izabel Camille’s sale and marketing of 2 earrings, “Superior” and “Darling”, which Dulong believed to infringe Dulong’s copyright in the Kharisma earring. The case also concerned the interpretation of a settlement reached by the parties in 2012 in connection with a similar case on copy-right infringement as well as non-compliance with the Danish Marketing Practices Act (markedsføringsloven).
The Maritime and Commercial High Court initially concluded that the settlement did not restrict Du-long’s right to take legal action against the infringement of the Kharisma design. The Court then con-cluded that the two earrings essentially reproduced all the distinctive features of the Kharisma design and that the two earrings therefore were infringing Dulong’s copyright. Furthermore, the Court at-tached importance to the two earrings appearing more as imitations in Izabel Camille’s marketing and, therefore, also found that Izabel Camille had failed to observe good marketing practice.
Dulong was awarded a reasonable consideration and damages for the infringement based on an esti-mate of Izabel Camille’s unauthorised profits and damages for market disruption.
Christina Type Jardorf conducted the case for Dulong.
Read the Maritime and Commercial High Court’s judgment here (in Danish only)
Photo: Dulong Fine Jewelry