Judge finds in favour of Maurice Blackburn in Fearless Girl statue fight with State Street

The Federal Court has found Maurice Blackburn’s use of a Fearless Girl statue did not impinge on the rights held by State Street Global Advisors.

The replica of New York's famous Fearless Girl statue in Federation Square, Melbourne. Picture: AAP

The full bench of the Federal Court has found in favour of Maurice Blackburn after the law firm was taken to task by State Street Global Advisors over its use of a Fearless Girl statue.

State Street, one of the world’s largest asset managers, had taken aim at Maurice Blackburn after the company installed a replica of the Fearless Girl statue at Melbourne’s Federation Square.

The statue was first used in 2017 after State Street placed it in front of the iconic Charging Bull on New York City’s Wall Street.

This came after State Street commissioned the statue to market its SHE gender diversity exchange traded fund, offering exposure to large listed American companies that “exhibit gender diversity in their senior leadership positions”.

This fund has $256.5m in assets under management.

Maurice Blackburn and superannuation funds Cbus and HESTA had struck a deal to acquire the rights to the statue from its artist Kristen Visbal in 2019.

However, State Street had argued that this had breached its rights, which allowed it to use the Fearless Girl trademark in “connection with goods and services that support women in leadership positions and the empowerment of women, and that promote public interest in and awareness of gender diversity and equality issues”.

State Street lost the first round of the legal fight in 2021, after Justice Jonathan Beech found there was no reputation in Australia for commissioning the Fearless Girl statue and that people were unfamiliar with its marketing campaign involving the statue.

State Street had argued Maurice Blackburn, Cbus and HESTA had tried to piggyback on the statue’s reputation to market themselves at the expense of the American asset manager.

The decision by the full bench of the Federal Court shuts down State Street’s attempt to appeal the first judgment and closes off their attempts to place an injunction that restrained Maurice Blackburn from using the replica Fearless Girl statue unless they used a plaque that noted the original use by State Street. The court dismissed State Street’s appeal, reducing Maurice Blackburn’s claim for costs by 10 per cent.

Originally published as Judge finds in favour of Maurice Blackburn in Fearless Girl statue fight with State Street