Audrey Hepburn’s eldest son Sean Ferrer is being sued by The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, the charity he helped establish because it says he is interfering with its attempts to raise money for children. Money was being raised largely by exhibiting her clothing – some created by fashion designer Givenchy.
The charity is saying that he has spent the last four years becoming increasingly ‘hostile’ to its use of Hepburn’s intellectual property.
It says he ‘seeks to entirely control, limit and prohibit’ the use of the intellectual property unless it pays a ‘significant portion’ of money raised to another charity of his choice, ‘or to simply preclude’ it from using the intellectual property at all.
The charity is suing Ferrer for intentional interference with contractual relationships, and seeking damages. It is also pursuing an injunction to stop him from registering any domain names based on Hepburn’s name.
If you have a brand, something you have invented, or an original piece of work that you have written and someone infringes your rights we can help. We can assist you in securing an injunction and/or damages or account of profits and the delivery up and destruction of the offending item. If you have been accused of infringing someone’s intellectual property rights then we can also help by raising various defences and minimizing your liability.
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