Trunki loses design copyright battle at Supreme Court

Children's ride-on suitcase brand Trunki has lost its Supreme Court battle against a rival over intellectual property rights.

Parent company, Bristol-based Magmatic, alleged PMS International, a competitor based in Hong-Kong, "ripped off" its design when it launched the Kiddee Case.

Magmatic won a high court judgement in 2013, but this was overturned by the court of appeal in 2014 and the result reversed in favour of PMS on Wednesday.

"We are devastated and bewildered by this judgment, not just for ourselves but for the huge wave of uncertainty it brings to designers across Britain," Robert Law, Trunki founder said.

"We created an original product in Trunki and protected it by computer generated registered design – a process used to protect a third of designs across Europe.

"In my honest opinion, the Trunki was willfully ripped off. We stood up to this behaviour, held it to account and took our case all the way to the highest court in the land – only for the judges to rule that we are not protected against the copy. They’re effectively sending knights into battle without armour," he added.

Paul Beverley, Kiddee Case founder told Sky News the ruling was a "victory for fair competition".

"It upholds the right of consumers to be able to choose competitively-priced products,” he said.

"We try always to work within the law and successive courts have agreed that there is no way our popular Kiddee Case can be mistaken for any other product.

"In reality we are operating in very different markets from our rivals and we have never been competing for the same customer base," he added.