Rihanna wins Topshop court case

Pop singer Rihanna has won her legal battle against Topshop over the sale of a T-shirt bearing

her image.

In May, Rihanna filed a suit against Topshop’s parent company Arcadia for 5 million US dollars over the T-shirts, which featured a picture of her taken during a video shoot in 2011.

Rihanna’s legal team claimed that the high street retailer had duped fans and that the line may have damaged her reputation within the fashion industry; due to her current deal with River Island. While Topshop’s lawyers claimed that the singer was making an unjustifiable bid to establish a "free standing image right" over use of her picture in the UK.

According to the BBC, judge Mr Justice Birss ruled that "substantial number" of consumers were likely to have bought the T-shirt because of a "false belief" that Rihanna had endorsed it, which he went onto conclude was damaging to her “goodwill” and represented a loss of control over her reputation in the “fashion sphere”.

The singer was seeking damages of 5 million US dollars, but the judge did not make an assessment of any liable damages in his ruling.