fashion – Duane Morris New Media and Entertainment Law

An article in Fashionista this week raises a provocative issue. Is it false advertising to use digital imaging software, such as Adobe’s Photoshop, to enhance photographs of people modeling cosmetic products and services, making the models look even more beautiful than they do in real life in order to sell these products and services?

According to the Fashionista article, Seth Maitlins, a citizen advocate and former marketing executive from Los Angeles, with the help of the Eating Disorders Coalition, has spearheaded the introduction of a bill in Congress called the “Truth In Advertising Act of 2014,” H.R 4341.

Continue reading “You Are Too Beautiful – Photoshop and Advertising”

International singing star Rihanna (Robyn Rihanna Fenty to the court) won a lawsuit in July in England against the Top Shop stores over the manufacture and sale of an unauthorized T-Shirt bearing her image. Merchandise (such as T-shirts, jackets, buttons) is a very big business; so the respective rights of celebrities and merchants are important. I frequently work on licenses and litigation in this area and know firsthand how valuable these rights are – and how seriously infringements are taken.

In the United States, celebrities routinely win such cases because the US recognizes a celebrity’s “right of publicity” — that’s the right to control most commercial exploitations of a celebrity’s name, likeness, and biographical details.

Continue reading “The T- Shirt Found No Love – Rihanna Wins in Court”