Music stars get shirty when it comes to image rights

We’ll get to the Bob Marley T-shirts in a minute, but let’s start with a point of clarification for the ageing hip-hop fans in the audience. Many members of this constituency will have been bemused at the amount of Paul’s Boutique merchandise spotted on high streets in the past few years.

The back-story is that bag designer Paul Slade was a fan of the Beastie Boys’ second album so he decided to pay tribute by using the title for his wares. It has led to many second takes from those of us who associate the name with the album rather than the bags, though it’s unlikely that we’ll see legal action between band and designer at this stage.

It would, of course, be a very different story had Slade decided to use the Beasties’ band name or image for his bags. As we saw this week, when Bob Marley’s estate won a four-year legal battle against merchandisers who were using the singer’s image on T-shirts, the law takes a dim view of this kind of passing off.

The case was taken by Fifty-Six Hope Road Music, the company that controls Marley’s likeness for licensing, against merchandisers producing the T-shirts, which were then sold in large American retail chains such as Walmart and Target. The outcome means a good pay-day for the Marley estate, but it also establishes precedents for other stars who’ve found their faces on bootleg merchandise.

It’s not the only action of this ilk to be taken, as Rihanna won a false representation case against Topshop over a T-shirt that carried her image. As with the Marley case, part of the ruling had to do with how potential purchasers might be led to believe that the item was endorsed by the star.

In the past, the majority of T-shirts featuring a band’s logo or image were simply sold to fans at concerts. Changes in music business revenue streams of late have meant that merchandising advances and sales have become a more important part of the act’s bottom line, so there’s always a keen eye kept on the merch take at the end of the night.

However, many heritage acts have found themselves appealing to a different audience thanks to iconic logos and photos appearing on mass-market T-shirts in recent years. These days, someone sporting an AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Ramones or Clash T-shirt may not know the first thing about the act in question, but have purchased the shirt because the logo looked cool.

In many cases, the image on the high-street T-shirts has been properly sourced and licensed. But there’s no doubt that some shops have played fast and loose with that process. You can be sure that the success of the Marley and Rihanna suits will mean acts who find their iconic logos or photos splashed on unlicensed T-shirts will be contacting their legal eagles. Time to get shirty.

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