Cut-price kilt kings banned from selling Queen's tartan

THE Capital's kings of cut-price kilts have been banned from selling the tartan worn by the Queen at the opening of the Scottish Parliament.

Rosemary Samios, who holds the copyright to the Isle of Skye tartan, went to court to secure an interim interdict against the Gold Brothers after she received a complaint that scarves using the design were being sold in shops in and around the Royal Mile.

She claimed the firm was importing from China "substantial bolts of cloth" which infringed her design right.

Mrs Samios, of Sydney, Australia, had raised an intellectual property action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh against the firm and its partners, Surinder, Galab and Dildar Singh.

She maintains she has suffered "serious moral and economic prejudice to the reputation of her registered design by reason of its application to cheap products of inferior design, quality and (in a number of instances) materials".

She also claims that the Gold Brothers made "substantial unfair profits from their infringing activities".

Judge Lady Dorrian granted an interim interdict against the firm from infringing the registered design right.