(RNN) – Pay up, post office.
A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Postal Service owes a sculptor $3.5 million for using an image of his replica version of the Statue of Liberty on its stamps, CNN reported.
The sculptor, Robert Davidson, filed suit in 2013 after noticing the USPS had used his version of Lady Liberty, which appears in front of the New York New York Hotel in Las Vegas. More than 5 billion of the stamps were sold.
In his lawsuit, Davidson said his replica "brought a new face to the iconic statue - a face which audiences found appeared more 'fresh-faced,' 'sultry' and even 'sexier' than the original located in New York."
The government argued it owed him nothing because his statute is a replica and not an original work. Judge Eric Bruggink sided with Davidson, saying he made the “statue his own creation.”
"A comparison of the two faces unmistakably shows that they are different," Bruggink wrote in his decision.
The Postal Service said it’s reviewing the decision.
Side by side: Las Vegas on the left and New York on the right. (Source: U.S. Postal Service/CNN and Mark Lennihan/AP)
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