Rihanna Wins Topshop Court Battle

Published on January 22, 2015.

Rihanna has come up the winner in a court battle with fashion retailer Topshop after Britain’s Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday December 22, that Topshop cannot sell a shirt with the pop star’s image on it.

Rihanna initially sued the parent company of Topshop, Arcadia for $5.5 million after thousands of fans had bought the shirt with her face on it arguing they would think she had endorsed the product.

Courts did ban the “tank” shirt that Rihanna’s legal team stated had an unauthorized photo of her on it from when she was filming a video in Northern Ireland in 2011.

The retailer however tried to get the courts to overturn their ruling stating that many clothing chains have used images of stars such as Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix claiming Rihanna was using the law to enforce, “only a celebrity may ever market his or her own character.”

While apparently Rihanna has no right within the law to prevent the use of her image, the judge ruled to ban it due to Topshop “passing off” the shirt with “misrepresentation.”

‘The judge considered the use of this image would in all the circumstances of the case, indicate that the t-shirt had been authorised and approved by Rihanna, many of her fans regard her endorsement as important for she is their style icon, and would but the t-shirt thinking she had approved and authorised it,” Lord Justice David Kitchin explained via Daily Mail.

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