Findings of Fact

Designer Guild Ltd v Russell Williams (Textiles) Ltd (Trading as Washington DC) (TLR 28 November H of L)

The claimant complained that the defendant in its Marguerite design had copied the claimant’s Ixia design and so infringed its copyright. The trial judge concluded in round terms that one had been copied from the other and that there had been copying of a substantial part of the claimant’s. On appeal to the Court of Appeal the Court of Appeal held that a substantial part of the design had not been copied, but in doing so it fell into error. It failed to give effect to the judge’s conclusion that the similarities between the two designs were so marked as to warrant the finding that one had been copied from the other and it was not for the Court of Appeal to embark on the issue of substantiality afresh, unless the judge had misdirected himself, which he had not. An appellate court should not reverse a judge’s decision on the facts unless the judge had erred in principle.