Celebrity Rights: Protection under IP Laws
Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, Vol. 16, pp. 7-16, January 2011
10 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2011
Date Written: January 30, 2011
Abstract
Protecting celebrity rights under intellectual property (IP) laws is a significant development in the field of intellectual property rights. Celebrities can flaunt their popularity and are permitted to make riches out of their identity. Though celebrities have often lend their voices, faces and names to various commercial and non commercial endeavours for free, there have been instances where photographs of celebrities have been used in advertising and for other purposes without their permission, leading to a scenario where celebrities are unable to make choices regarding the exposure which is acceptable to them as well as monetary benefits that they wish to acquire. In this paper, a modest endeavour is made to highlight and explain various issues concerning celebrity rights and their protection under IP laws. There are various international conventions, which have recognized these rights, either directly or indirectly. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights are noteworthy evidence in this regard. Moreover the rights of celebrity can be protected through copyright trademark etc. In this paper, various rights like right to privacy, publicity/merchandising rights, moral rights, personality rights, rights of passing off etc, are discussed. Theses rights are explained in the light of laws in India and practices prevalent in US, UK, and civil law countries like France, and Germany.
Keywords: Celebrity rights, Intellectual Property Right privacy, publicity, merchandising, moral, personality, passing off
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