Managing Intellectual Property

Americas

01 June 2009

Woody takes $5 million in publicity suit Actor Woody Allen last month reached a $5 million settlement with American Apparel in his headline-grabbing right of publicity suit against the US clothing manufacturer. Allen sued American Apparel last year for using an image from the film Annie Hall of the actor dressed as a Hasidic rabbi in a 2007 billboard campaign. He claimed that the company had used his likeness without permission for advertising purposes and sought $10 million in compensatory and exemplary damages and attorney's fees.

American Apparel chief executive Dov Charney argued that the billboards amounted to free speech and represented the right of "an individual or corporation to invoke the likeness of a public figure in a satiric and social statement".

Speaking to reporters outside the Manhattan court where the case was set to be argued last month, Allen said: "It's of course possible by going through the...



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