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Stretchline wins high court patent dispute against H&M

The dispute concerned Stretchline’s patented technology in bras, which prevents the underwire in a bra from perforating its wire casing.

26th November 2015

Knitting Industry
 |  Nottingham

Intimate Apparel, Collections

Stretchline Holdings, the largest branded narrow fabric manufacturer, headquartered in Long Eaton, UK, has won a multi-million pound, multi-jurisdictional patent dispute against global retail giant H&M.

Nottingham’s Nelsons Solicitors have acted for Stretchline, after the international fashion brand H&M infringed the company’s patent on a piece of coveted bra technology.

Nick McDonald, partner at Nelsons Solicitors, who has represented Stretchline in the case. © Nelsons Solicitors

“This is an important day for Stretchline as we are, and always have been, extremely proud of our innovative technologies. It’s important to our customers that we protect our IP rights and that is all we have sought to do here,” said Head of IP at Stretchline Robert Glenn.

Judgment

The handing down of the judgment took place at the High Court in London on Friday 20 November. The judgment will see Stretchline entitled to an injunction, damages, costs and other remedies, subject to any successful appeal.

“Stretchline has been successful and the court has ruled that each of the 12 different garments it cited as infringing in its claim do indeed infringe its patent – and therefore the settlement agreement has been breached by H&M. We’re very pleased for Stretchline,” commented partner at Nelsons Solicitors Nick McDonald, who has represented Stretchline in the case.

Dispute

The dispute concerned Stretchline’s patented technology in bras. In 2003 Stretchline bought a local company called Price Shepherd and with it all of its intellectual property, including the brand Fortitube and patented technology, a product which prevents the underwire in a bra from perforating its wire casing – a well-known and commonplace problem with most bras.

In 2011 Stretchline discovered that H&M were selling bras which incorporated Fortitube technology, without a licence from Stretchline. Proceedings were issued in the UK and the US and the case was settled in 2011. However, in 2012 Stretchline again found infringing garments being sold by H&M and so after extensive correspondence proceedings were issued once more.

Stretchline, which is headquartered globally in Hong Kong, has manufacturing bases in the USA, Mexico, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia and Honduras.  It develops innovative solutions for a variety of well-known global retailers and brands.

www.stretchline.com

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