Shein, Kmart fight back against Qld retailer in intellectual property dispute

Kmart and Shein claim designs Sabo Skirt said they copied were not original Mon 1 Jun 2026 at 6:14am In short: Kmart and Shein have challenged the originality of designs that Queensland retailer Sabo Skirt said they had copied in an intellectual property dispute. The businesses, alongside online retailers Billy J and Selfie Leslie, have denied that they infringed Sabo Skirt's intellectual property rights and challenged the ownership of the designs. What's next? The matter will return to the Federal Court in Queensland on July 7. Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein and Australian powerhouse retailer Kmart have fired back at Queensland fashion brand Sabo Skirt, claiming designs they were accused of copying were not original. The allegations have come to light as part of an intellectual property dispute in the federal court. In February, Sabo Skirt and the company Larry and Luke — which owns the related intellectual property rights — accused 19 businesses of copying the designs, patterns, prints and trademarks of 36 different garments. Since the proceedings began, Sabo Skirt has discontinued the claim against seven businesses. The Australian branch of Shein, Kmart, Australian online retailers Billy J and Selfie Leslie, and a Singaporean wholesaler linked to Shein have all denied the allegations made against them, challenging the originality and ownership of the designs. Newness questioned In court documents, Shein and Kmart claimed Sabo Skirt did not hold the copyright for various elements of the garments they were accused of duplicating because those designs were not "new and distinctive". One example is the "shoreline design" by Sabo Skirt: a print featuring aquatic items including lobsters, shells and leaves, portrayed in different orientations scattered across a white background. The print was first registered with the official government body IP Australia on October 17, 2024. In Kmart's counterclaim, it provided examples of almost 50 images published before Sabo Skirt's print was registered, which Kmart claimed were "identical or substantially similar" to the shoreline design. Shein made a similar claim about Sabo Skirt's Terazza design, a maxi A-line dress with spaghetti straps and a wide tie back with rickrack lining the panels. In court documents, Shein submitted nine images of designs registered before Sabo Skirt's, including five dresses from Australian luxury brand Zimmermann. Shein also said Sabo Skirt's design only differed "in immaterial details, or in features which are variants commonly used in fashion trade". Both businesses argued this meant Sabo Skirt's designs were not registrable by law. Ownership challenged Kmart and Selfie Leslie also challenged the company Larry and Luke's ownership of the garments in question and its right to register the designs. In its defence, Selfie Leslie said it had never sold one of the garments it was alleged to have copied and the other three were imported as complete items from China. It said it did not know about Sabo Skirt's designs before receiving letters of demand from Sabo Skirt's lawyers, and after receiving the letter, it stopped selling and importing the garments and sent the remaining stock to Sabo Skirt's lawyers. Billy J, which has been accused of copying the likeness of 11 garments, the most in the initial claim, denied that it wholly or substantially recreated Sabo Skirt's designs. It also denied the allegations that Billy J had reverse-engineered Sabo Skirt's garments, knew its garments would constitute a copyright infringement, and the garments would cause members of the public to believe the two businesses were affiliated. Sabo Skirt has been contacted for comment. The matter is due to return to the Federal Court on July 7.