Owner of The Sun hits ITV with legal action over footage of Princess of Wales

Broadcaster ITV and its production company Independent Television News (ITN) has been hit with legal action by the publisher of The Sun newspaper.

The claim was filed by Taylor Wessing, an external law firm for News Group Newspapers (NGN), a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, which publishes The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Sun newspapers.

The case was filed to the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court on Monday. The Telegraph understands it to relate to footage of the Prince and Princess of Wales at a farm shop in Windsor in March.

In early March, the Princess of Wales released a photo on social media on Mother’s Day. However, it was revealed the photo was photoshopped – this resulted in a scandal that gripped the media for most of the month.

As ‘Where is Kate’ trended on social media, along with an endless list of conspiracies – The Sun published a story on 17 March that had a video of William and Kate walking out of Windsor Farm Shop. It was the first time she had been seen since undergoing major abdominal surgery in January.

This video also stirred more conspiracy theories online from people who believed that it was a body double for Kate as well as speculation on the person who took the video.

NGN is now suing ITV and ITN for alleged copyright breach after ITV News used the clip in its own coverage. The spokesperson for The Sun declined to comment while a spokesperson for ITV said “ITV and ITN will strongly resist this claim”.