[url=http://www.tattydevine.com/blog/2012/02/can-you-spot-the-differenceHow do they think they can get away with this?[/url

I suspect they won't...

Sadly I suspect they will, they will have a bigger budget for any lawyers bills than a small designer.

Just keep it dragging through the courts until the little person can't afford to pay any more legal bills and concedes the point or settles out of court for a pittance.

Up there with my pet hate - phoenixing businesses who continue to run up debts they never have any intention of paying, then walk away from them leaving their suppliers struggling. Something we see all the time at work unfortunately.

Do people buy that crap??

Oh yes - know all about that one. I know where I'm not buying any furniture from in future...

Prepacks are a nightmare in the print industry - problem is those suppliers - paper & ink who got caught first time are queuing up to supply the new company!! if suppliers refused to deal with prepacks it would stop the practise pretty quick.

The problem with having an ethical business policy is that pretty soon you'll be queueing up to take advantage of a pre-pack yourself.

Suppliers simply can't afford to be picky who they supply, because if they are someone else will come along and take that business away from them.

The prepack completely screws up the market - especially selling rates, difficult to compete with a business devoid of debt with P&M they have got for a pittance!!

On a positive the majority fail in the first place because of inept management - it is the very same management who are running the new entity - not a shock a lot are failing a second/third time - you cannot polish a turd

I'm certainly not defending this, but it's extremely common in fashion, if not always so blatant or indeed local to source.

A good friend of mine spends much of her working life travelling the UK and the world looking for "influences".

Oh, I'd entirely agree – it's essentially how the fashion world works.

I think the obviousness of this is what makes it stand out.

Absolutely, that's less of an 'influence' than daylight robbery. Almost perfect copies.

Good lawyers or not, hard to see how Claire's can get away with it.

That said, my friend has always said it practically impossible to start out as a designer these days for the simple fact the large fashion firms will 'borrow' anything decent and churn out their own versions - with just enough differences to probably be legally sound.