Rihanna has won a two-year multi-million pound legal battle with Topshop after they unlawfully used her image on a popular T-shirt sold to thousands of fans. The pop star sued Topshop's parent company Arcadia for £3.3million ($5.5million) over the clothing, which featured a photo taken during a video shoot for her hit 'We Found Love' in 2011.
In 2013 her legal team successfully argued her fans, who saw her as a fashion icon, would have falsely thought she had endorsed the garment sold by the high street fashion
store. In their first legal skirmish the courts banned the store selling a Rihanna 'tank' sleeveless T-shirt without her permission - but the fashion chain then tried to overturn the initial ruling.
Today the Court of Appeal upheld the ban agreeing that marketing the clothing without the 26-year-old singer's approval amounts to 'passing off,' a term used to enforce unregistered trademark rights.
It also found the image was similar to the one used on her 2011 Talk that Talk album and fans could be misled.
The legal battle threat came despite the What's My Name singer having dined with Sir Philip and music mogul Simon Cowell while on her Christmas break to Barbados in 2010. The star, who in 2012 signed a deal worth a rumoured £800,000 to design a range with High Street rival River Island, tweeted about the Boxing Day meal they had together, saying: 'Just had dinner w/ Simon Cowell Philip Green @ Sandy Lane! Great night!' She has also spent time with Sir Philip's daughter Chloe while holidaying at the same time in the Caribbean two years ago. Today Lord Justice David Kitchin said: 'People could be deceived into buying the t-shirt perhaps believing it was authorised by Rihanna.
'Topshop sold the t-shirt without Rihanna's approval and this amounted to passing off.'
In the appeal, heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in November last year, Topshop lawyer Geoffrey Hobbs QC, who was trying to overturn the previous ruling, argued there was a tradition of merchandising star images over the decades, including those of Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix and Prince.
However, Rihanna's legal team said the image was from an unauthorised photograph taken while she was filming a music video in Northern Ireland and Topshop should be banned from exploiting it.
It was this view that was endorsed by today's judgement.
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