The Right of Publicity Maturation of an Independent Right Protecting Associative Value

Abstract

Dispute and confusion marked the emergence and development of the “right of publicity,” a right concerned with the use of attributes of a generally identifiable person to enhance the commercial value of an enterprise. The Second Circuit decision in Haelan Laboratories v. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. has played a pivotal role in shaping the understanding of the right of publicity. That case established that a celebrity has a right to damages and other relief for the unauthorized commercial appropriation of the celebrity’s persona.

Since that case, the law has matured in the development of a flexible common-law approach to the commercialization of identity and the “associative value” inherent in celebrity. This article tracks those developments.