Unauthorized use of clothing photos posted by others to promote one's own products
2024-06-28
In order to showcase the selling points of clothing and increase product sales, online clothing stores usually use real person photos to display the upper body effect of clothing. However, if the portrait of the portrait owner is used without the consent of the portrait owner or without justifiable reasons, it constitutes infringement. Recently, the Fourth Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing concluded a second instance dispute over the portrait rights of online clothing stores using photos of others wearing clothes to promote products without authorization. In the end, the infringer was sentenced to immediately stop the infringement, delete the infringing link, issue an apology statement, compensate for economic losses, and pay 40000 yuan in legal fees. Zhang is a fashion blogger who often posts personal fashion photos and videos through social media accounts. As of March 14, 2023, he has received over 500000 likes and favorites. A certain clothing department, without the consent of Zhang, used multiple photos containing Zhang's portrait in the product links of shirts and jackets published in the registered online clothing store for commercial promotion and publicity. The store data shows that the price of the top is starting from 52.4 yuan, with 9200 pieces assembled, and the price of the jacket is starting from 58.2 yuan, with 7500 pieces assembled. After discovering that the fashion photos he posted had been stolen, Zhang filed a lawsuit with the court, requesting that the clothing department immediately stop infringing, delete infringing links, apologize, compensate for economic losses, and reasonable legal costs of 70000 yuan. After trial, the court held that citizens have the right to a portrait, and without the consent of the portrait owner, others are not allowed to use the portrait of the portrait owner. A certain clothing department, without the consent of Zhang, used Zhang's photos for commercial promotion and publicity in its operated stores, which infringed on Zhang's portrait rights, should immediately stop the infringement behavior, delete the infringing product links, and apologize. Considering the losses suffered by Zhang as a result and the difficulty in determining the benefits obtained by a certain clothing department, the court, taking into account the specific circumstances and sales volume of the clothing department's infringement behavior, as well as factors such as notarization fees and lawyer fees incurred by Zhang for rights protection, has decided to compensate Zhang for economic losses and rights protection costs of 40000 yuan. The judge stated that Article 1019 of the Civil Code stipulates that without the consent of the portrait owner, the portrait of the portrait owner shall not be made, used, or made public, except as otherwise provided by law. It can be seen that, unless otherwise provided by law, any use of the portrait of the portrait owner without the consent or justifiable reasons constitutes infringement, rather than profit and must cause losses to the portrait owner. In this case, a certain clothing department used multiple dressing photos posted by Zhang in product links without Zhang's consent, which infringed on Zhang's portrait rights. The presiding judge reminds that in the era of information networks, anyone has the opportunity to commercialize the right to portrait. The higher the popularity and the larger the number of fans, the higher the property interests in the portrait rights, and the more worthy of commercial utilization. Practice has proven that using portraits of well-known individuals for commercial promotion can achieve twice the result with half the effort, quickly gaining popularity and increasing sales. However, unauthorized use of the portrait of the portrait owner without their consent constitutes infringement, and one must not only bear the legal responsibility of stopping the infringement and apologizing, but also bear the legal consequences of compensating for economic losses. We hope that business operators respect their rights, respect the law, be honest and trustworthy, and do good deeds. Do not use portraits of others without authorization. (Lai Xin She)
Edit：Jia jia Responsible editor：Liling
Source：http://rmfyb.chinacourt.org
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