Rihanna sues dad over Fenty name
Rihanna is suing her father over his use of their last name for a business.
It was his name first, but Rihanna says she now legally owns it and her father has no right to exploit it for his professional gain.
R&B singer Rihanna has sued her father, Ronald Fenty, over his alleged misuse of her brand Fenty, which also happens to be the family surname, according to TMZ.
Rihanna trademarked the name for her business ventures, including her established Fenty Beauty line. Her complaint in a California federal court states that her father and his business partner Moses Joktan Perkins “have egregiously and fraudulently misrepresented to third parties and the public that their company, Fenty Entertainment, LLC, is affiliated with Rihanna, and has the authority to act on her behalf,” according to records obtained by Pitchfork.
Fenty and Perkins brokered lucrative deals — including a 15-concert tour of Latin America for $15 million, and for shows at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena — without Rihanna’s knowledge, according to the lawsuit.
The business partners “have used these lies in a fraudulent effort to solicit millions of dollars from unsuspecting third parties in exchange for the false promise that they were authorized to act on Rihanna’s behalf, and/or that Rihanna would perform at various locations throughout the world,” reads the lawsuit.
Rihanna’s lawyers say that the pair has ignored multiple cease and desist letters, which led her to file her complaint.
They also claim that Fenty led people to believe that he was a business representative for Rihanna’s Roc Nation label, and that in 2018 he unsuccessfully tried to trademark the phrase “Fenty” for a line of boutique hotels.
Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, has had a difficult relationship with her father, according to the Blast.
She has previously alleged that he had been physically abusive toward her mother,