Celebrity News

Lindsay Lohan and Michael Jr. ordered to stop work on fashion app

Now the whole Lohan family really is in trouble. Lindsay Lohan and brother Michael Jr. have been hit with a court order to stop work on their fashion e-commerce app Vigme after an ex-business associate claimed they stole the idea from him and is suing for $60 million.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Saliann Scarpulla issued a temporary restraining order on Friday, which bars the siblings from launching, promoting or marketing their “virtual closet” app Vigme. The order comes after Fima Potik claimed Michael Jr. and his famous sister stole his trade secrets from his online shopping company Spotted Friend to start a competing business.

After meeting Potik in 2013, the Lohans, along with Michael’s roommate Christopher Roth, became equity members of Spotted Friend, and Potik handed over a beta version of the app and marketing materials. The app allows users to view celebrities’ and friends’ virtual closets, then purchase wardrobe items.

Months later, Potik learned from reading Page Six that the Lohans had launched social commerce Web site Vigme, which he claims is a “virtual clone” of Spotted. “Vigme’s mobile application . . . is nearly identical in design and layout to Spotted Friend’s mobile application.”

Potik has hired power lawyers Kenneth David and Marc Kasowitz. David said, “The Lohans’ egregious theft of the design, layout and functionality of Spotted Friend’s app [was] in blatant violation of their contractual and fiduciary duties. This significant victory helps ensure that the Lohans will not profit from their illegal conduct at Spotted Friend’s expense.”

But the Lohans’ attorney, Ravi Batra, told us that the restraining order merely “preserves the status quo” until the Lohans file court papers “backing up their claim that Fima is an inept plagiarizer who fraudulently induced Lindsay, Mike and Chris to join him with [false] representations that he would have a product-recognizing app by June 2013 — an app he still hasn’t created.” Batra added, “Fima’s days of being a celebrity-leech are over.”