Rihanna lawyers seeking costs from Topshop
Lawyers who represented singer Rihanna in a High Court battle over a t-shirt are seeking $1m in legal costs, a judge heard today as he granted her an injunction.
Mr Justice Birss, who sits in the Chancery Division and is used to dealing with massive legal bills, described the figures as “startling”.
He recently ruled that Rihanna's fans might have been deceived into thinking that she had endorsed the t-shirt.
Topshop had sold the garment – which bore an image of her taken from a photograph – between March and August 2012.
The judge said sale of the t-shirt without her permission was “passing off”.
Today, in the latest hearing, he ruled that it was “right and fair” that Rihanna should be granted an injunction to prevent any future similar wrong use of the “style icon’s” image.
He gave Topshop permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal against his ruling.
If his decision is upheld on appeal, the judge will then assess the amount of damages due to the singer – and how much is also due in legal costs.
The judge said the estimated legal bill put forward by Rihanna’s legal team was $1.4m or £919,000 - “figures I find startling”.
The judge said he was not satisfied that he could safely use those figures to decide what interim payment should be made today to Rihanna pending a full damages assessment.
He eventually settled on a “reasonable” £200,000.
