Media and Entertainment

This was the trial and subsequent appeal of a complaint made by the world famous singer, Rihanna, that Topshop had infringed her rights by selling a t-shirt with her image on it and that this constituted an act of passing off. There was no claim in copyright because the photo on the t-shirt was taken by an independent photographer, and he had licensed his copyright to Topshop.  This matter has gained much media attention both because of the parties involved and because the claim itself was framed so as to cover any image of Rihanna. 

At trial, the claimants restricted their claim to a particular complaint about the image used on t-shirt, saying that it reflected particular promotional images from Rihanna’s Talk that Talk album.  They succeeded on that narrower basis.  The Court of Appeal has now upheld the first instance judgment, finding  that, with all the particular factors of the case, the sale by Topshop of the t-shirt did amount to passing off. 

Hugo Cuddigan acted for Topshop. 

Rihanna & ors v Topshop & ors [2015] EWCA Civ 3

High Court trial in relation to the Copyright in Bob Marley’s song “No Woman No Cry” as well as other musical works. There was also a claim for an account of sums mistakenly had and received by the Defendant from copyright collecting societies in respect of the works.

[2014] EWHC 1690 (Ch)

Two members of chambers have been involved in this long running dispute concerning the licensing by the NLA of internet news aggregation services.  Henry Carr QC represented Meltwater and the PRCA in the Copyright Tribunal in a successful challenge to the NLA’s licensing scheme.  In parallel with this the NLA brought a claim in the High court against them to determine whether end users infringed the NLA’s copyrights and therefore required a licence.  Michael Silverleaf QC represented Meltwater and the PRCA in the High Court and Court of Appeal.  Henry Carr QC took up the cudgels in the Supreme Court.

The Court was asked to determine the scope of the temporary copying exception to copyright infringement introduced by Article 5.1 of Directive 2001/29/EC. The question was whether the copies of a webpage made on a person’s hard-drive and screen during browsing the internet fell within the exception to infringement.

The Court held that such use would not amount to copyright infringement. The court considered that this was an important issue not only to UK internet users and so made a reference to the European Court of Justice to ensure a uniform application of the law throughout the EU.

 [2013] UKSC 18

The voicemail interception litigation arising from the activities of journalists at the News of the World and the investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, which has been going on since 2008.  There are many interlocutory clashes (see for example [2012] EWHC 397 (Ch)) and the trial of tranche 2 of the claims, which was due to be heard in February 2013 has now been put back to later in the year.

Ate My Heart Inc (AKA Lady GaGa) claim for trade mark infringement.  Ate My Heart obtained an interim injunction restraining the creators of Moshi Monsters from proceeding with a heavily publicised launch of a single by a parody character.