The Primark retail chain have been taken to book by one of my favourite design brands Superdry for copying elements of one of its best sellers, a leather jacket, named ‘the Brad.’ It has been worn frequently by the iconic uber-celebrity, clothes horse, chiselled jaw on legs and part time sportsman David Beckham. According to the Guardian “it has become something of a classic since Beckham first stepped out in it in 2007, with 70,000 sales to date and 25,000 on order for this autumn.”

Now there is plagiarism all over the shop, whether it’s university students copying colleagues’ assignments, that annoying bloke down the pub who steals your best jokes or someone squatting on the ‘Britain’s got Talent’ Twitter accounts. But, what I find increasingly difficult to get my head around is when you are working in an industry as visual as high street clothing, why would you take the risk? Any consumer, let alone intellectual property rights lawyers, can see the blatant similarities.

Call me cynical, but Primark designers must know what they are doing, by copying a brand as high profile as Superdry aren’t they almost fishing for this type of PR controversy? Firstly, due to all the free publicity they receive in high profile media, but also reinforcing the idea that you’re getting designer clothing at Lidl prices, so much like the real thing that they get taken to court for their trouble. In my humble opinion the count down is on for the next Primark copyright case, my guess is 29/08/09, so watch this space.