Rihanna has won her legal battle against Topshop, having successfully sued the high street chain's parent company Arcadia for $5 million over using an 'unflattering' image of her on their T-shirts without her consent, which was taken during her 'We Found Love' music video shoot in 2011 and showed her with her hair tied up in a bandanna.
In a hearing this morning at London's High Court, it was ruled the fashion retailer duped fans and may have damaged her reputation. In a two-minute statement, Judge Mr. Justice Bliss said: 'There is no such thing as a general right by a famous person to control the reproduction of their image. The mere sale by a trader of a T-shirt bearing an image of a famous person is not an act of passing off. However, I find that Topshop's sale of this T-shirt was an act of passing off.'
He added that a 'substantial number' of fans could have been deceived into buying it, thinking it was approved by the pop star which was damaging to her 'goodwill' and was a loss of control of her reputation in the fashion world. Topshop's lawyers previously disputed the claims, saying the 25-year-old megastar was making an unjustifiable attempt to establish a 'free-standing image right' over use of her picture in the UK.
Rihanna previously took offence to the 'low-quality image' and also slammed the quality of the garments as 'poor'. Wonder how she's going to spend that extra cash?
