This Europe: Rival firms get themselves in a twist over design of underpants

Lawyers had the chance to handle a set of briefs rather more literally than normal when two of Europe's leading underwear manufacturers clashed in court in Marseilles this week.

Hom, from Germany, and Dim, from France, dispute the right to a new type of male underpants with a horizontal front opening, which have more anatomical logic than Y-fronts or other traditional pants.

Hom claims to have patented the idea after it was thought up by a French designer, Dominique Raffalli. Its HO1 pants, first manufactured in 1997, have been praised by no less an expert than the former US president Bill Clinton.

Dim, which produced similar but cheaper pants two years later, denies that it stole the design. The commercial court studied both types of underwear, plus photographs and drawings of underpants down the ages. Displaying a pair of his client's underpants, Hom's lawyer, Maître Christian Bonnenfant, said: "The designer, Dominique Raffalli, first had the idea. The central opening is horizontal, which means it is easier for the man to extract what he needs to extract, with either the right hand or the left."

Dim's lawyer, Maître Michel Daniloff, showed the court a chart of underpants designs from 1936 to 1988. "Mr Raffalli could not have invented pants with a horizontal opening because they already existed in Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs," he said. Hom is claiming €760,000 (£480,000) in damages. The court will give its verdict in September or October.