ST. PETERSBURG, August 9 (RAPSI) – A Russian fashion designer’s fight to use one of Thomas Gainsborough’s best-known paintings in her work has gone to the country’s new intellectual property court, according to a statement issued by Russia’s top commercial-dispute court on Friday.
The Federal Commercial Court in the North Caucasus district has passed on to the country's Intellectual Property Court (IPC) an appeal by St. Petersburg fashion designer Iya Yots against a ruling prohibiting her from using Gainsborough's “Portrait of a Lady in Blue” in her designs, the Supreme Arbitration Court said on its website Friday. The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, whose collection includes the iconic portrait, had asked the court to order Yots to stop using the image of the painting.
In February, the Commercial Court of the Stavropol Territory ruled in favor of the Hermitage’s lawsuit, and in May, the Sixteenth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.
"Portrait of a Lady in Blue" was bequeathed to the Hermitage by Alexei Khitrovo and was given to the museum in 1916. It is the only example of the English artist's work in Russia. Some art historians believe that it is a portrait of the Duchess of Beaufort.
The IPC was established in April to hear intellectual property cases both as a court of first instance and as a supreme court of appeals. It started working on July 3.
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