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It’s all about or is it?
Most world-famous pop stars are pleased when fans adorn t-shirts brandishing their faces, but only when the company producing the merchandise has permission.
In July, the High Court handed down judgment in a passing off case brought by the singer Rihanna who has a clothing collection at River Island, against major clothing retailer, Topshop. Topshop had been selling tank tops bearing an image of the star taken from her 2011 single, We Found Love. There was nothing to indicate the tops (or tags) were official merchandise but neither was there anything to suggest they weren’t. The case is most likely to be referred to generally as Rihanna v. Topshop, and the judgment delivered this week shows the relevance of some very old legal principles to current commercial trends. There was no dispute that it was an image of her, nor that she had not given permission for its use. Rihanna claimed damages for use of the image. What the judge makes clear from the outset though is that this is not a case about image rights. He states very early on, in an admirably clear and crisp judgment, that although this phrase is often bandied about in English law today “there is no such thing as a freestanding right by a famous person (or anyone else) to control the reproduction of their image”. So, on what basis could Rihanna make a claim? This brings us back to the tort (a civil wrong) of passing off. To establish a claim Rihanna had to show that 1. She had goodwill or a reputation amongst relevant members of the public, and 2. That the sale of the t-shirts represented some form of misrepresentation, and 3. The misrepresentation led to damage to her goodwill. The judge made it quite clear that there was a misrepresentation because the public, and in particular Rihanna’s fans, would believe that there was an element of endorsement by her. He took this view taking into account that there were some similarities between this image and some used by her and her companies, and also beca ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q??????????????????????????????I???????e?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????I??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????=????((??((0