Stephen Boyd debates image rights & wrongs
“Whatever may be the position elsewhere in the world...there is today in England no such thing as a free standing general right by a famous person (or anyone else) to control the reproduction of their image” (Birss J, Fenty and others v Arcadia Group and another [2013] EWHC 2310 (Ch) (Rihanna v Topshop).
The utilty of passing off as a cause of action to be deployed by a celebrity whose image had been exploited without consent was brought to the fore by Irvine and another v Talksport Ltd [2002] EWHC 367 (Ch). Eddie Irvine was a well-known Formula One driver. In 1999 Talksport embarked on a special promotional campaign to mark the rebranding of the station from Talk Radio to Talksport. It sent out to media buyers a flyer bearing a photograph of Irvine. The original photograph, which showed the driver holding a mobile phone, had been manipulated to replace the mobile phone with a radio to which the words “Talk Radio” had been added. Irvine contended that the distribution of the flyer
