Music legend Tina Turner, 81, sues a German tribute act for looking too much like her.
The ‘Simply the Best’ singer has turned to her ‘private lawyer’ in Germany, demanding an unauthorised tribute act remove her posters for fear that the public may mistake the lookalike for the real thing.
Turner first filed suit against Dorothea ‘Coco’ Fletcher last year when the posters were first released. Fletcher is originally from American, in her thirties and has been impersonating Turner for a number of years
The star’s legal team scored an initial victory after a court in Cologne, Germany, ruled the posters could indeed be misleading to punters, The Times reported.
But the posters were re-designed and Turner lost a follow-up case at the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the risk of confusion among the public did not outweigh Fletcher’s right of artistic expression.
The case has now reached the Federal Court of Justice. A lawyer representing Turner, sought to persuade the judges that the posters do not constitute ‘art’ and are merely advertising.
Meanwhile, Fletcher’s representation argued that the average fan would expect a tribute act to look like the real Tina Turner.
Entertainment lawyers at Collyer Bristow state that this case is unlikely to keep tribute acts off the UK stage, says
What’s law got to do with it? Tina Turner sues uncanny tribute act
