Thursday, January 22, 2015

Britain's Court of Appeals Confirms Rihanna vs Topshop (1-0)

Remember in 2013 when Rihanna sued UK fashion brand Top Shop for using her image on one of their t-shirts (read it here) and won  $5 million in damages? Well Brittain's High Court of Appeals confirmed the "passing off" ruling in her favor.

 As WWD reports, "last November, Topshop appealed a decision by a judge at Her Majesty's High Court in London prohibiting the retailer from selling T-shirts featuring a particular image of Rihanna." 

Other interesting observations: what British law calls "passing off"  U.S. law calls  "trademark infringement." And apparently, Topshop failingly argued that it had the right to pass off Rihanna's image arguing that it had used the likes of famous artists before.