American singer Ariana Grande filed a $10 million lawsuit against Forever 21 claiming that the fast fashion retailer “stole her name, likeness, and other intellectual property to promote their brands for free,” which violates multiple trademark and copyright infringements back in September 2019.
Grande’s team claim that in November 2018, Forever 21 contacted Grande’s team in the hopes of collaborating on a collection inspired by the highly anticipated release of Thank U, Next the album in February 2019. Her team also claims that the retailer was “experiencing a financial downturn” due to the quick rise and growth of the ecommerce based fast fashion retailers and was looking to capitalize on her massive social media following.
Negotiations between the Grammy Award winning artist and the retailer took place from December 2018 to January 2019, but “the proposed endorsement deal never came to fruition” because the retailer was unwilling to pay the sufficient amount in rights to use Ariana’s name and likeness.
Forever 21 began posting content to their Instagram accounts that featured Ariana Grande starting on November 30, 2018. Grande’s team claims that they contacted the retailer multiple times from February to April 2019, demanding all posts featuring Grande. Forever 21 finally removed all posts featuring Grande’s unauthorized name, image, likeness, and music on April 17, 2019.
On October 17, 2019, Forever 21, Inc. filed a “Notice of Suggestion on Pendency of Bankruptcy and automatic Stay of Proceedings” in the lawsuit of Ariana Grande v Forever 21, INC. The company’s lawyer stated that on September 30, 2019 the company filed for “voluntary petitions for relief under chapter 11 of the title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Court) in the District of Delaware.
So, what does that mean for the Ariana Grande lawsuit?
Although it seemed like Forever 21 would be non-existent by the end of 2020, the company received a second chance and announced that Authentic Brands Group (ABG) purchased the company for $81 million in February 2020. Four months later, on June 17, 2020, it was reported that Forever 21 returned online to the U.K. and EU market as part of the company’s new e-commerce-centric global strategy.
Once the brand has been able to stabilize its financials the company can address the pending lawsuit from Grande. However, based on all the evidence provided by Grande’s team and the company’s infringement past, it doesn’t look great for Forever 21. According to American University’s Intellectual Property Brief, it seems Grande has a strong case against Forever 21 and may actually walk away with the $10 million she is seeking.
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