The Forever 21 shirts are top row. Trovata's designs below. Courtesy photo.

UPDATE: A mistrial was declared today (Tuesday) because the jury couldn’t reach an agreement. I’m not surprised.

Lawyers gave their closing arguments last week on the latest lawsuit against the fast fashion retailer Forever 21.

Designers are constantly battling with retailers like Forever 21 because they can produce copy cat versions of their latest runway lines, sometimes before the designers have had a chance to ship their original lines.

Forever 21’s lawyer Bruce Brunda claimed that “You would need a telescope, or at least binoculars” to find the features Trovata — an upscale, off-beat preppy designer line — alleges were copied, according to a report in Women’s Wear Daily on Friday.

Well, above you’ll notice the two lines in question. You’ll notice that perhaps you don’t need binoculars. In fact, you only really need to have your eyes open to notice some pretty striking similarities, except of course for the price.

It wouldn’t be unusual for a Trovata garment to be $150 or more.

A sharp contrast to an average $15 price at Forever 21.

The lawsuit covers seven Trovata pieces from fall 2005 to early 2006.

The Forever 21 co-founder Jin Sook Chang, speaking through a Korean translator on the witness stand, said she had never even heard of Trovata until they sued her, according to the New York Magazine’s The Cut blog post, Forever 21 Founder Doesn’t Know Much About Her Company.

The Trovata lawsuit is just one of more than 50 suits brought against Forever 21 in the last few years, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Companies such as Diane von Furstenberg, Anna Sui, Anthropologie and Bebe all alleged copyright violations and the suits were settled out of court.

Even though the case looks open and shut, the reality is that it’s hard to stop copy cats in the design world because it’s easy to argue that a polo is just a polo. Everything is based on something and even Trovata must have gleened inspiration from someplace outside it’s own company. They did not invent the rugby stripe or mismatched buttons.

But does that make it OK, for someone to blatantly profit from the work of someone else, repeatedly. It’s going to be a tricky on-going battle. Trovata will not be the last to sue the $1.7 billion retailer accused of “a chilling lack of remorse,” during the closing arguments.

But what it, they could work out some way of allowing knock-offs for the teenage market that can’t necessarily afford a $170 ruffled top by Trovata and still compensate the designer without the messy legal stuff. Maybe designers can eventually settle for a percentage of sales of clothing inspired by their lines.

If you can’t beat them…

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