Burberry Drops Suit Against Bogart Estate

The Burberry Group has decided to drop the lawsuit it filed in May against Humphrey Bogart’s heirs, in which it defended its display of the late actor’s image in a social media ad campaign. As covered in a previous post, U.K.’s largest luxury-goods company had used a famous image of the actor wearing a trench coat from the filmCasablanca on its Facebook timeline after it had obtained a license to use the photo from its provider, Corbis. The reason for posting such an image was to show the historical influence of the brand, not to sell merchandise.

Bogart LLC had responded to Burberry's lawsuit by filing a trademark-infringement suit in California, claiming that Burberry “designed, manufactured, and sold numerous apparel and accessory products” as well as created marketing materials making use of its intellectual property and argued that Burberry’s use of the actor’s photo gave the public the false impression that Bogart endorsed the company’s coats.

No reason was given as to the dismissal. We've noted in our previous post that the case was an interesting intersection of social media marketing and intellectual property laws. Had it gone to trial, the case would have had the potential of establishing a precedent and no doubt influence other fashion tech marketing stategies. However, with the dismissal, the case cannot be refiled. Social media marketing and right of publicity will remain without any bright-line rules...for now.