John Lydon - better known as Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten - has submitted a revised lawsuit in his dispute with photographer Dennis Morris over who owns the copyright in the logo for Public Image Ltd, the band Lydon formed after leaving the Sex Pistols. Morris has responded by filing a revised defence and counterclaim with the high court in London.
The dispute over the PiL logo copyright kicked off after Lydon did a deal with streetwear brand Supreme to create clothing that contains said logo. In January 2023, Morris had his lawyers send a cease and desist letter to Lydon, claiming that the photographer owned the copyright in the logo meaning Lydon couldn’t enter into any deals licensing its use.
In his lawsuit, Lydon says that he developed the concept for the PiL logo not long after the band was formed in 1978. He then asked Morris, who had “access to professional design tools” to “refine and finalise the logo design”.
As Lydon commissioned Morris to refine his design, he owns the copyright in the finished image, he argues. It was an “implied term” of the contract between Lydon and Morris, his lawsuit adds, that Lydon “was to be the sole legal and equitable owner of the copyright in the logo as if it had been a commissioned work”.
But Morris presents a different version of events. It was, in fact, he who suggested the PiL abbreviation of Public Image Ltd, an idea he then honed “around the idea of PiL suggesting a pill or tablet”, prompting him to design a logo that would “mimic an aspirin pill with the lower case 'i' sitting in the groove across the middle where an aspirin pill could be broken”.
Which means Morris created the logo and is therefore the owner of the copyright in the image. Morris’s “authorship of the logo” has, says his legal filing, “been widely recognised and acknowledged without complaint or challenge by any members of the band”.
Lydon first went legal in this dispute in April 2023, which is when he first formally presented the claim that, while he and Morris co-created the logo, he was the copyright owner.
According to the Daily Mail, a pre-trial hearing took place last month, mainly to discuss who might be called as witnesses in a dispute that relates to events more than 45 years ago.
According to court records, Lydon filed his amended complaint on 22 Dec, while Morris submitted an amended defence and counterclaim last week. A date for the case to get to trial is yet to be set.
