Dive Brief:

• Robyn Rihanna Fenty, better known as Rihanna, has prevailed in a U.K. lawsuit against Topshop over the retailer’s sale of T-shirts emblazoned with her picture.

• A three-judge appellate court agreed with an earlier ruling that the use of her photo was improper use of an unregistered trademark. Arcadia Group Brands Ltd., which owns Topshop and other brands, had permission from the photographer to use the image, but not from the singer herself.

• Arcadia Group Brands was denied an opportunity to appeal in the ruling, and hasn’t commented on the decision.

Dive Insight:

Here’s a lesson for retailers to be sure that all details of licensing are taken care of when designing and marketing merchandise. In this case, it's possible that the photographer had a greater incentive to allow Topshop to use the image than Rihanna, which would have made the photographer’s permission easier to obtain. That, however, just wasn’t enough.

“There is a lucrative market for celebrity endorsed goods and provided the public consider the product with a celebrity image is ‘official’ and is authorized by that celebrity, the celebrity will be able to protect use of their image,” intellectual property lawyer Jeremy Blum, who wasn’t involved in the litigation, told Bloomberg.