John Lydon sues photographer over classic Public Image Ltd logo

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 asked him to help to refine and finalise the logo design. The defendant agreed to help, and they discussed and worked together to produce the logo. In the circumstances, there was a binding contract…between the parties for the creation of the logo,” it continued.

“It was an implied term of the contract that the claimant was to be the sole legal and equitable owner of the copyright in the logo as if it had been a commissioned work.”

However, Morris’ lawyer argued that Morris “became friends” with Lydon during a trip to Jamaica, and that “Mr Lydon informed Mr Morris that he had come up with the name for a new band which he initially called Public Image and which shortly afterwards became Public Image Limited.”

He added: “(Morris) suggested that the acronym PiL could be used in connection with the band, an idea which he then developed when designing the logo. It is denied that PiL was used by anyone before the defendant had designed the logo.

“He developed this further around the idea of PiL suggesting a pill or tablet, and designed the logo to mimic an aspirin pill with the lower case ‘i’ sitting in the groove across the middle where an aspirin pill could be broken. The defendant drew the logo by hand onto paper.’ (Morris’) authorship of the logo has been widely recognised and acknowledged without complaint or challenge by any members of the band.”

The case will return to court for trial at a later date.

Meanwhile, PiL are set to hit the road for a run of UK tour dates kicking off in May 2025. You can purchase any remaining tickets here.