Temporary reprieve in Dunnes shoes row

DUNNES Stores may continue selling its range of Doc Martens lookalike footwear until an alleged passing off claim is determined by the High Court.

Mr Justice Brian McCracken yesterday refused to grant the Doc Martens manufacturing and retail agents an interlocutory injunction restraining Dunnes from continuing to sell the shoes.

He accepted an undertaking by Mr Rory Brady, senior counsel for Dunnes, that in selling the goods, staff would not continue to tell customers they stocked Doc Martens shoes or promote them in store as Docs.

Mr Justice McCracken held that on the evidence before him the plaintiffs, R. Griggs Group Ltd, Elizabeth Maertens, Robert Funck and Dr Martens International Trading company, did not have a very strong case.

But he was aware they would have a greater opportunity to call more evidence at the full trial. They had just about done enough to establish an arguable case.

Mr Justice McCracken said it seemed to him inherently inequitable that the proceedings should be brought against a retailer which had purchased the shoes in good faith from two manufacturers in Britain and Italy.

The shoes had been offered to Dunnes as goods they were entitled to sell yet no action bad been taken against the manufacturers.

If there was ultimately held to have been passing off, the basic misrepresentation would have been that of the manufacturer.

Mr Justice McCracken said the damage likely to be suffered by Doc Martens, particularly if the case was given an early hearing would, in the context of its world wide sales and world wide campaign, be minimal.