John Lydon sues photographer over classic Public Image Ltd logo

nme.com:

John Lydon has filed a lawsuit against a photographer over Public Image Ltd‘s (PiL) band logo.Dennis Morris is best known for his images of Lydon’s former band the Sex Pistols and Bob Marley.Lydon claims that he came up with the distinctive PiL logo in the shape of a pill, and asked Morris to use his design tools to finish off the image.

But Morris claims he alone suggested using the acronym and the pill design, before sketching out the logo, with its drop-case ‘i’, on a notepad.It comes after Lydon signed a deal with the major streetwear brand Supreme in 2022 to produce a run of clothing featuring the logo on t-shirts, shirts, jackets and caps.

But lawyers for Morris allegedly sent the singer a letter insisting the image was not his to sell.“The claimant played no part in the design and creation of the logo, which was the original creation of the defendant alone,” Morris’ lawyer Edmund Cullen KC told the High Court, according to the Daily Mail. “It is pure invention.”Lydon and Morris lodged papers with the court laying out how they remember the design coming about.“Shortly after the band became known as Public Image Limited and/or PiL, [Lydon] developed the concept for a logo to be used in relation to its activities,” the singer’s legal team allege. “His concept was for a circular logo incorporating the acronym PiL in a plain, formal, business-like font, with the central ‘i’ differentiated from the other letters.“The defendant, Mr Morris, was a photographer who had taken photographs of the Sex Pistols and was known to the claimant.

After the Sex Pistols disbanded, he remained in the entourage of the claimant and the band.”“As the defendant had access to professional design tools unavailable to the claimant, the claimant.