Sarah Lund's jumper is exhibit A in a legal battle

They became a cult fashion item after the success of a gruesome TV detective series. Now cut-price versions of the star-patterned jumper popularised by Danish detective Sarah Lund could be seen on every high street after the manufacturer of the knitwear made famous by The Killing lost a legal battle to prevent cheap imitations flooding the market.

The trademark chunky sweater worn by actress Sofie Gråbøl became almost as famous as the cast of the Danish drama, prompting huge demand for the distinctive design and even a tribute website.

To prevent other designers cashing in on the global demand, the Faroese designers of Lund's original sweater, Gudrun & Gudrun, took legal action against Danish company Stof og Sy, which had made a considerably less expensive version of the Lund sweater. They argued that the Danish firm had violated copyright laws by replicating their jumper designs, including the star-patterned one Gudrun & Gudrun designed for Gråbøl to wear as she hunted the killer around Copenhagen.

However, a court has, according to reports, now ruled that Stof og Sy can continue selling jumpers that resemble those from the acclaimed television series. Lene Langballe of Stof og Sy, which means fabric and sewing, convinced the court that the star pattern is actually hundreds of years old and that its version did not violate any copyright or marketing laws.

Although Stof og Sy does not sell the finished product, it offers a kit with yarn and pattern for about £40; a Gudrun & Gudrun jumper costs £240.

Demand for traditional knitwear, buoyed by Gråbøl's choice, remains robust, according to this month's edition of Vogue, which promotes the "homespun" virtues of Fair Isle sweaters, the traditional knitting technique named after Fair Isle, a tiny Scottish island between Shetland and the Orkneys.

The Gudrun & Gudrun design is from the Faroe Islands, which are equidistant from Iceland, Scotland and Denmark. It is based on an old Faroese fisherman's sweater, adapted with a tighter fit for women. Gudrun Rógvadóttir, the owner of Gudrun & Gudrun, has reportedly stated her disappointment at the court's ruling and continues to maintain that Stof og Sy's version was "a pure copy" of her original design.

When the Duchess of Cornwall visited the set of The Killing outside Copenhagen in 2012 she was given a cardigan in the style of Sarah Lund's jumper. "Everybody wanted that sweater. The company in the Faroe Islands couldn't keep up," Gråbøl told the Guardian in a 2011 interview.

Gråbøl recently revealed that TV bosses tried to take away her alter ego's trademark woolly jumper and even put the hard-nosed Danish detective in high heels for the last series of the hit TV drama. The 45-year-old actress has been appearing in Edinburgh as the medieval Scottish Queen Margaret, a Dane by birth, in a trilogy of royal plays at the centre of the city's grown-up International Festival.

Before appearing, Gråbøl admitted that she was acutely aware of how closely she is identified with the role of Lund and that some of her audience may find it hard to see her in a new light.

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