District Court Judge Allows Interior Designer’s Right of Publicity Twitter/Facebook Lawsuit Against Former Employer To Go Forward

A U.S. federal district court is allowing part of a plaintiff’s case based on the Illinois Right of Publicity Act to go forward and the Lanham Act, based on her allegations that the defendants used her name and image in Twitter posts and Facebook posts without her consent. 

Here, Maremont has sufficiently alleged that – as a professional interior designer – she become well-known in the Chicago design community allowing her to create a popular personal following on Facebook and Twitter. Maremont also alleges that her Tweets and Posts relate to her work in a commercial context, namely, as a professional interior designer and employee of SFDG. Also, construing the facts and all reasonable inferences in Maremont’s favor, she alleges that she was engaged in the commercial marketing of her skills when Defendants wrongfully used her name and likeness by authoring Tweets and Posts under her name.

The case is Maremont v. Susan Fredman Design Group, Case No. 10 C 7811. Discussion here from Hunton Employment and Labor Perspectives Blog.