Rihanna trademarks her surname

Rihanna has trademarked her surname, Fenty, for use across a wide range of products including clothing, lingerie, swimwear, beauty, and technology, sparking rumours that the singer is preparing to launch her own fashion and lifestyle empire. The singer, who has previously designed numerous collections for

River Island, filed documents earlier this summer through her company Roraj Trade LLC to trademark the brand names Fenty Apparel, Fenty Beauty, Fenty Clothing, Fenty Cosmetics, Fenty Face, Fenty Intimates, Fenty Lingerie, Fenty Makeup, Fenty Nails, Fenty Swim, Fenty Swimwear, Boomflick, Fenty Corp, and Robyn, to join her previous trademarks Fenty88 and Rhi Rhi.

The move has sparked speculation that the Barbados-born singer, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, is set to develop her own brand, however, it might just be like other celebrities including Justin Timberlake, Cara Delevingne and Beyonce and Jay-Z who registered trademarks for their baby daughter Blue Ivy, to protect their names and images.

Rihanna trademarks Fenty surname across fashion categories

"The best way for celebrities to protect their name for product ranges like fashion is to get a trade mark registration. This effectively guarantees that no-one else can use their name without permission,” Jason Rawkins, head of Fashion at law firm Taylor Wessing told The Telegraph. “It's becoming an increasing trend for celebrity artists to cash in on their name by diversifying into fashion lines.”

The trademarks might be in response to her court battle with Topshop last year, where the Grammy-Award winning singer sued the retail chain for selling T-shirts bearing her image without her consent. In that case, judge Mr Justice Birss ruled that the design had been an act of "passing off", and that a "substantial number" of customers were likely to have bought the T-shirt of a "false belief" that Rihanna has endorsed it. He also added that the T-shirt was damaging to her “goodwill” and represented a loss of control over her reputation in the “fashion sphere”.

If Rihanna does decide to launch her own fashion empire she wouldn’t be the first singer-turned-designer, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani and Jessica Simpson all have lines, but the most famous singer who has launched a successful fashion career has to be Spice Girl’s Victoria Beckham.

Image: Rihanna for River Island