Royal Photographer Sues Clothing Store For Using Princess Diana Image
A former photographer for the British royal family is suing a clothing store for allegedly using his image of Princess Diana in its advertising without permission.
According to Fox17, Glenn Harvey, who worked as a royal photographer from 1985 until Princess Diana’s death in 1997, filed a lawsuit against menswear clothing store Bruce Baird & Co. in a federal court in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Harvey says he took the photograph of Princess Diana in Barra, Scotland in 1985. The photographer says he copyrighted the image in 2019.
However, according to court documents, Harvey says he discovered the photo that he took of the princess on Bruce Baird & Co.’s website in November 2021.
The photographer claims his image of Princess Diana was used in three different places on the clothing store’s website without his consent.
In his lawsuit, Harvey says the clothing store, which is based in Chattanooga, used his photo to advertise and promote the business.
In one of the screenshots provided in Harvey’s lawsuit, Bruce Baird & Co. appear to use the photographer’s image of Princess Diana to advertise a $400 Barbour coat on its website.
In the lawsuit, Harvey claims that he notified Bruce Baird & Co. of the alleged copyright infringement of his image in January 2022. However, the parties have failed to resolve this matter.
Fox17 reports that Harvey is asking that the menswear clothing store face a trial by jury, pay him for damages rendered, and pay for attorneys fees, as well as anything else the court deems proper.
In a 2014 interview with U.K. local news outlet Surrey Live, Harvey described how he first met Princess of Diana and became her photographer.
“I first met a young Lady Diana Spencer when rumors first began about a romance with Prince Charles”, the photographer told Surrey Live.
“We were only a year apart in age but from very different backgrounds.”
In 2014, Harvey showcased 100 photographs that he took of Princess Diana in an international exhibition. The exhibition included an iconic image of the princess sitting by herself on a bench in front of the Taj Mahal, India.
The photograph, shot in 1992, captured Princess Diana’s disintegrating marriage to King Charles III.
Image credits: All photos via court documents.
