|
Three years ago Topshop, which is owned by billionaire Philip
Green's Arcadia Group, started selling a T-shirt with an image
of Rihanna on it without her permission.
Rihanna, full name Robyn Rihanna Fenty, took Topshop to court
over the matter, and in 2013 a judge ruled in her favor, saying
that shoppers could be deceived into buying the T-shirt, wrongly
believing it was authorized by the Barbadian singer.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal dismissed Topshop's appeal
against that decision, finding that the retailer had infringed
Rihanna's rights by selling the item without her approval.
The image was a photograph taken by a freelance photographer in
Northern Ireland while Rihanna was filming a music video.
Topshop had a license from the photographer to use the picture
but no license from Rihanna.
In Britain, celebrities do not own the rights to their image,
but companies using an image without permission can face legal
action.
"In this case, both the Court of Appeal and High Court were at
pains to spell out that it is not an infringement just to use
someone else's image, but that on the facts of the case they
both agreed that the circumstances surrounding the image's use
on the T-shirt meant there was a false misrepresentation leading
to passing-off," said intellectual property lawyer Jeremy Blum
from law firm Bristows in a statement.
Passing off means deceiving a potential buyer into thinking
goods or services on sale are those of another.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Dominic Evans)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
|
