Rihanna has won her legal battle with Topshop, the BBC confirmed. The singer wanted the retailer to stop selling a line of T-shirts bearing pictures of her face, which it had produced without her consent.

The star sued the British high-street store for using a photograph of her filming the music video for her single We Found Love in Northern Ireland. She claimed that the image was "very similar" to one used on a CD sleeve and may have confused fans into thinking that it was "genuine" endorsed merchandise with "an emotional connection to their heroine".

However, Topshop maintains that it bought the licence for the picture from the photographer who took it - thus making the brand fully entitled to use the image. The store's lawyers argue that the singer isn't legally able to make a monopoly on how her character is marketed.

The case judge, Mr Justice Birss, said that there was "no such thing as a general right by a famous person to control the reproduction of their image. The taking of the photograph is not suggested to have breached Rihanna's privacy."

"The mere sale by a trader of a T-shirt bearing an image of a famous person is not, without more, an act of passing off," he continued. "However, the sale of this image of this person on this garment by this shop in these circumstances is a different matter. I find that Topshop's sale of this Rihanna T-shirt without her approval was an act of passing off."

Topshop has yet to comment.

Source: Vogue