Rihanna Wins Legal Battle With Topshop + Plus More Celebrity Lawsuits
After a recent court ruling, Rihanna has officially won her case against Topshop for selling t-shirts with her face on them.
Topshop did not seek permission from Rihanna to produce and sell the t-shirts but did buy a licence from the photographer who took the picture.
The case judge, Mr Justice Birss, said that there was “no such thing as a general right by a famous person to control the reproduction of their image. The taking of the photograph is not suggested to have breached Rihanna’s privacy.”
Despite Topshop’s lawyers arguing that Rihanna is a singer and therefore, does not have the authority to legally control how her character is monetized, the case swayed in Rihanna’s favour.
“The mere sale by a trader of a T-shirt bearing an image of a famous person is not, without more, an act of passing off,” the judge continued. “However, the sale of this image of this person on this garment by this shop in these circumstances is a different matter. I find that Topshop’s sale of this Rihanna T-shirt without her approval was an act of passing off.”
For now, let’s hope that Rihanna is celebrating and strutting around somewhere with a bottle of champagne!
Rihanna’s Not Alone
Although this seems to be a victory for Rihanna, many other celebrities have had to recently face troublesome legal matters. For instance, the Kardashian sisters got into a legal batter of the name of their beauty brand, Khroma. Apparently, the popular brand took away sales from a lesser-known beauty brand, Kroma, a US-based, organic line. According to the injuction that the US judge ordered, the Kardashians are now forced to change their beauty line to “Kardashian Beauty”. Not a huge loss in my opinion. The line should continue to bring in lots of sales, especially with the name “Kardashian” directly in the name now.
For Katy Perry, things were a bit different. We’ve all seen Katy in the recent GHD hair appliances advertisements but the singer states that the company verbally agreed to extend their contract with her. Reports stated that the brand wanted to cut ties ASAP because they felt Katy wasn’t as popular in Europe as she once was. Eventually, both parties dropped the lawsuit completely last month.
Now, here’s a lawsuit that will shock you… This year, Lady Gaga’s former personal assistant sued her for overtime, unpaid work. That’s not the real bombshell though. The assistant, Jennifer O’Neill, claims that Gaga forced her to sleep in the same bed as her because she didn’t want to sleep alone.
“I was by her side virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That includes sleeping in the same bed with her. Because she did not sleep alone,” O’Neill said.
£225,000 is what Gaga is sued for at the moment. Well, I suppose the celebrity lawsuit drama will never end…
