MELBOURNE, Australia — She stands four feet high, with her hands placed on her hips, her chin up and a defiant look in her eye. Known as the “Fearless Girl,” the bronze statue in Lower Manhattan was intended to “drive a conversation” on the importance of elevating women in corporate roles — a feminist message amplified by replicas that have popped up in cities around the world.

But the financial services firm that purchased the original, State Street Global Advisors, is calling them unauthorized copies and waging an aggressive legal campaign against them. Critics say the fight proves that the company’s embrace of the Fearless Girl was always less about promoting female empowerment than it was about promoting itself.

On Monday, lawyers for the Boston-based firm appeared in Federal Court in Melbourne, Australia, as part of a lawsuit against a personal injury firm, Maurice Blackburn, that commissioned a copy of the Fearless Girl and installed it in Federation Square, a city landmark.

State Street’s lawyers, who are seeking unspecified damages, argued in court that the replicas were a trademark violation and diluted the company’s message. David Studdy, a lawyer for the company, said that Maurice Blackburn had “used the campaign to promote itself or themselves by tying the name of Fearless Girl to themselves.”