French fashion house Longchamp has won a legal battle with a Korean brand over the sale of bag products that look similar to its signature folding bags, an appellate court said Sunday.

The Seoul High Court overturned a lower court’s order and ruled in favor of Longchamp which accused the local brand of copying its best-selling product Le Pliage. Le Pliage, meaning fold in French, has been popular here for its practical design since 1997.

“The bag (produced) by ‘S’ brand appears to carry designs similar enough (to Longchamp) to lead customers to recognize it as a Longchamp product,” a judge said in the ruling.

The French fashion brand filed a suit last year to ban the sale of bags produced by the Korean company. But Longchamp lost the case as the court ruled that the bag does not carry unique designs that could be immediately identified as its own brand. The local brand, identified as “S,” has produced a similar type of folding bag and sold it online at a lower price.

By Cho Chung-un  (christory@heraldcorp.com)