Tesco and Next in design row
A legal battle has broken out between high street fashion retailer Next and Tesco over several clothing lines it says the supermarket has copied from its designs.
Next claims that Tesco has copied designs of five separate clothing lines including trousers, shorts, sandals and shoes and two design motifs used in its ranges.
The row focuses on Tesco’s Cherokee shoes, which Next claims copies its Trekker range of shoes. Tesco denies all the charges.
“As a significant owner of intellectual property ourselves we take any claim of infringement extremely seriously, however, as this is an on-going legal matter we are unable to comment further,” says a Tesco spokesperson.
It has been reported that Tesco has filed a counterclaim alleging that Next sent the supermarket “unjustified” threatening letters on four occasions last year and early this year.
Last week, Next reported profits were up 7.6% to £214.9m across its retail and catalogue business for the half-year to July.
Earlier this month, Tesco was slammed for offering vouchers to get health scans through its Clubcard loyalty scheme, with the Society of Radiographers (SOR) calling for it to be scrapped.
