Pop diva Rihanna wins court battle against Topshop over T-shirt featuring her image

LONDON – Pop singer Rihanna has won a court battle against fashion retailer Topshop over a T-shirt featuring a photo of her.

Britain’s Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld an earlier ruling that Topshop can’t sell the shirt bearing the singer’s image without her approval.

The star’s lawyers said the image was from an unauthorized photo taken while Rihanna was filming a video in Northern Ireland in 2011.

But Topshop’s lawyers argued that retailers have used images of stars including Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix over the decades, and that Rihanna was wrongly using the law to claim that “only a celebrity may ever market his or her own character”.

A High Court judge ruled earlier that the star’s fans may be deceived into thinking she had endorsed the T-shirt.

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