Russian actor Pavel Priluchny has filed a lawsuit against an entrepreneur from the Kursk region over the unauthorised online sale of pillowcases bearing his image, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
The actor lodged the intellectual property claim with the Sudzhansky District Court. According to the report, the defendant in the case is a woman who sold a product listed as a Pavel Priluchny dakimakura pillowcase on a popular online retail store without obtaining his consent.
Total sales of the pillowcases on the platform exceeded 1.4 million rubles, TASS noted. Legal representatives for Priluchny valued the resulting damages at 2,820,230 rubles, a sum almost double the reported sales revenue generated by the unauthorised merchandise.
Pavel Priluchny and dakimakura body pillows
A dakimakura is a large full-body pillow originating in Japan that typically features full-length printed portraits of anime characters, actors, or public figures. Covers for the pillows are widely sold as novelty fan merchandise across e-commerce platforms and online marketplaces.
Priluchny is one of Russia's best-known film and television actors, having gained widespread recognition for his leading role as Igor Sokolovsky in the crime drama series Mazhor, released internationally under the English title Silver Spoon. The Sudzhansky District Court handling his intellectual property lawsuit is a local court in the Kursk region of western Russia.
Nikita Dzhigurda lawsuits over online merchandise
Priluchny's complaint follows similar legal action by fellow Russian actor and singer Nikita Dzhigurda, a veteran performer known in Russia for his gravelly voice and film appearances. In September, Dzhigurda filed a lawsuit against a vendor selling life-sized figures featuring his face.
In that claim, Dzhigurda demanded 250,000 rubles in compensation from each of the defendants for the unlawful use of his image and personal data. Before bringing the September lawsuit over the life-sized cutouts, the entertainer secured a separate court victory against business owners who had sold masks bearing his face on an online marketplace.
