A very recent English Court of Appeal decision shows the
distinct approach of English courts to publicity rights (Fenty
v. Topshop [2015] EWCA Civ 3).
In 2012, the fashion retailer Topshop began selling in its UK
stores and through its website a fashion t-shirt showing a clearly
recognizable image of Rihanna, the well known pop singer. The owner
of copyright licensed the image to Topshop, but Topshop did not
license rights from Rihanna. The image is below:
The Court of Appeal noted that Topshop had previously sold
garments bearing images of famous persons, some of which had been
authorised and some of which had not.
Topshop sold about 12,000 units of the Rihanna t-shirt between
March and August 2012, at a price of £22. Initially the shirt
was described online as the "Rihanna tank" and
"photographic Rihanna motif tank", but by mid-March of
2012 those references to Rihanna had been removed, possibly because
Rihanna is a registered trade-mark for clothing.
