Rihanna's Topshop Lawsuit Is Heading To The High Court

The singer is taking the store to court over the use of her image without consent

Rihanna has filed a lawsuit against Topshop, which if she wins will mark a groundbreaking decision in the British courts.

The legal issue arose when the high street giant used the pop singer's image, taken from her We Found Love video, on a T-shirt at the end of last year without her consent.

The case will be heard at Her Majesty's High Court of Justice this summer, and if the singer wins her case it will be a landmark verdict. As it stands, there is no right of personality in UK law. Anyone who legally buys an image is entitled to use it, unless it's trademarked, which is rare.

It's understood that Rihanna's lawyers would have to prove that the Topshop T-shirt portrayed the singer as 'endorsing' the brand, a legal source told WWD.

Reports surfaced over the weekend that the Barbados-born star has been in negotiations with the store over the issue for more than a year, allegedly asking them several times to remove the item from sale, which they failed to do.

News of the lawsuit comes just a week after Rihanna unveiled her next collection for rival UK high street store River Island, which hits the shop floor and the web this weekend.

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