The Killing sparks knitwear copyright dispute
A shop-owner in Jutland, Denmark has been accused of copyright infringement for selling a knitting pattern which replicates a jumper worn by actress Sofie Gråbøl in Danish detective drama The Killing.
Lene Langballe has been selling the pattern at her shop, Stof og Sy, (Fabric and Sewing) since The Killing first aired in Denmark in 2007. The jumper is made by Faroese fashion label Gudrun & Gudrun and costs £240. The yarn and pattern for Langballe’s product cost around £40.
Gudrun & Gudrun ordered Langballe to stop selling the pattern in November and has asked her for DKR 10,000 (around £1,100) as compensation for infringing its copyright. Langballe has refused and the designers are now considering legal action.
Langballe did not respond to requests for comment.
Guðrun Rógvadóttir, who co-owns Gudrun & Gudrun with designer Gudrun Ludvig, confirmed on Monday that he is trying to reach an amicable solution with the shop-owner. “However, if we are not able to reach such a solution I have instructed my lawyers to take legal action,” he said.
Claes Wildfang, an associate partner at Lett Law Firm in Copenhagen, said that while the decision to pursue copyright infringement in claims relating to clothing is not particularly unusual, it is harder to prove than design infringement.
“With clothing in Denmark, you would normally plead design infringement, as with copyright, you have to prove origin and creation and that there is some sort of creativity. Under EU design law, you are offered protection for your unregistered designs for three years, or up to 25 if you register the design.”
For copyright owners who cannot easily prove copyright or design infringement, Wildfang says Denmark’s Marketing Practice Act can provide protection but that usually, brand owners taking this approach would also have to plead some kind of bad faith, which in this case, could be difficult to prove.
If the case reaches court, Wildfang says the shopowner could be served an injunction and forbidden from selling the knitting pattern – but only if the jumper is protected under EU design or copyright law or Denmark’s Marketing Practice Act and the design is found to be identical or confusingly similar to Gudrun & Gudrun’s.
