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The U.K.’s Supreme Court today ruled in favour of the propmaker who has been selling costumes based on the Stormtrooper outfits from the Star Wars movies.

Andrew Ainsworth designed the props for the original Star Wars film, and has been retailing the replica costumes for some years. He claimed that they were not covered by full copyright laws, as they were functional works and not artistic. Lucasfilm sued him in 2004 for $20 million, on the grounds that he did not own the intellectual property rights, but after various battles in the courts, Ainsworth has emerged triumphant.

“It was the Star Wars film that was the work of art that Mr. Lucas and his companies created,” the justices wrote. “The helmet was utilitarian, in the sense that it was an element in the process of production of the film.”

“Art is like a Rodin sculpture, film production is an industry and that’s what these products are, they were always industrial designs,” Ainsworth told the BBC. “I am proud to report that in the English legal system David can prevail against Goliath if his cause is right. If there is a force, then it has been with me these past five years.”

Lucasfilm released a statement, noting that the judgement “maintains an anomaly of British copyright law under which the creative and highly artistic works made for use in films – which are protected by the copyright laws of virtually every other country in the world – may not be entitled to copyright protection in the U.K.”

Legal experts believe that Ainsworth’s victory may lead to a flood of copyright suits filed in the U.K., Bloomberg Business News suggested, as it has established a legal precedent that U.K. courts can determine whether non-U.K. copyrights have been infringed.