Court of Appeal upholds Birss J in Rihanna's Case
Topshop, Leeds Photo Wikipedia In Fenty and Others v Arcadia Group Brands Ltd and another [2013] EWHC 2310 (Ch), [2013] WLR(D) 310 Mr Justice Birss gave judgment to Robyn Rihanna Fenty (better known as Rihanna ) and her corporate licensing companies against Top Shop for selling a t-shirt that reproduced a photo of the singer. The claim was brought not for infringement of copyright since the owner of the copyright in the photograph had licensed the reproduction of his work but for passing off. Rihanna and her companies had claimed that the t-shirt misrepresented authorization or approval of the manufacture and distribution of the garments and that such misrepresentation damaged her commercial activities. I wrote about the case in Passing off - Fenty v Topshop 10 Sept 2013 and readers are referred to that note for an appreciation of the judgment. A lot of people were surprised by Mr Justice Birss's decision including me t...