-
-
Case Review
-
Recent Posts
Categories
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
Monthly Archives: November 2011
With southern California serving as the home of many of the world’s celebrities, California is often at the front of the evolving field of publicity rights law. Here in the US, publicity rights vary from state to state, but courts in other states often look to see what California is doing when they have to make a publicity or privacy rights ruling. California passed the “Celebrity Rights Act” (“Act”) in 1985, ensuring that the protections the state offers celebrities remain valid law. One of reasons for its passing was an earlier court case from 1979 that ruled that publicity rights did not pass to a deceased person’s heirs like copyright protections do. The Act changed this, enabling the heirs of celebrities to protect their loved one’s image even after his or her passing. In California, publicity rights exist for 70 years after one’s passing. The Act is located in California…
Read More »
Non-compete clauses protect a company by preventing its employees from leaving and doing certain acts that might harm the company. Common restrictions that non-compete clauses cover include: Preventing an employee from going to work for a competitor for a certain length of time (too long may result in a court refusing to enforce the clause) Preventing an employee from working within a certain radius of the previous employer (again, this reach cannot be too broad) Companies often use non-compete clauses in addition to nondisclosure agreements to keep an employee from “jumping ship,” so to speak, and going to a competitor with valuable information from his or her past employer. In California, however, the rules are different. In 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that non-compete clauses are unenforceable in California. Many companies continue to use them, as they have become standard everywhere else in the country, but in most cases…
Read More »
Publicity rights protect a person’s right to his or her “brand.” By brand, we mean everything that makes a person unique, including a person’s name, image or voice. Publicity rights are important because they prevent others from cashing in on someone else’s celebrity. Celebrity endorsements, for example, are worth a lot of money – both for the celebrity and the business receiving the endorsement. Publicity rights help celebrities prevent others from creating unofficial endorsements in order to boost sales or attract attention. In the United States, publicity rights are constantly evolving. This is because the law in this area does not come from the federal government, but rather from each individual state. Some states have passed laws protecting publicity rights; others do not have laws, but still protect such rights through common law and precedent; and some states may not have any publicity rights protections at all. California has typically…
Read More »