Brian Farmer Singer Rihanna has won a legal row about a T-shirt with Topshop after a High Court judge ruled that her fans might have been deceived into thinking she had endorsed it. Topshop had sold the T-shirt between March and August 2012, Mr Justice Birss was told. The garment bore a picture of the singer taken in 2011 as she filmed a video in Northern Ireland for her song We Found Love. The retailer had no licence from Rihanna to sell the garment and the singer had taken legal action claiming that selling it without her permission infringed her rights. Topshop disputed her claim saying nothing on labelling suggested the T-shirt had been authorised by Rihanna and that the public had no expectation that clothes were authorised by people shown in an image. But yesterday the judge ruled in Rihanna's favour after analysing evidence at a trial in London earlier this month. The judge said Topshop's sale of the T-shirt without her permission was passing off. "In my judgment a substantial portion of those considering the product will be induced to think it is a garment authorised by the artist. The persons who do this will be the Rihanna fans," he said. "I am quite satisfied that many fans of Rihanna regard her endorsement as important... Many will buy a product because they think she has approved of it. Others will wish to buy it because of the value of the perceived authorisation itself. In both cases they will have been deceived." The judge said that was damaging to her "goodwill" and represented a loss of control over her reputation in the "fashion sphere". He said it was for the singer not Topshop to choose what garments the public thought were endorsed by her. "I find that Topshop's sale of this Rihanna T-shirt without her approval was an act of passing off," he said. The judge made no assessment of damages in yesterday's written ruling. Topshop said later that damages had yet to be assessed. ATopshop spokeswoman said bosses were "surprised", "disappointed" and "perplexed" by the ruling and were considering an appeal. "There was no intention by Topshop to create the appearance of an endorsement or promotion," the spokeswoman said. "We do not believe it conveyed any false message to our customers. There was no evidence of consumer confusion to support the judge's conclusion. However, it does appear that in this case Topshop's reputation and popularity has worked against us."
n 'PASSING OFF': Singer Rihanna films her video for We Found Love in a field in Bangor, Co Down in 2011. Fashion retailer Topshop yesterday lost a High Court case taken by the singer over a T-shirt which bore an image from the shoot