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 been at the forefront of changes in publicity rights law, given the state’s status as the home of numerous celebrities and public figures. In a post later this week, we will take a closer look at California publicity rights law in particular.
Publicity rights are different from copyrights. Copyrights protect original works like writings, musical scores or paintings. If you have a copyright on something, you have rights in that work; you can prevent others from copying or selling it without your approval.
Publicity rights, on the other hand, are about having rights in yourself – publicity rights evolved out of privacy rights. You can prevent others from using images of you without your approval because if they did so, they would be violating your publicity rights – your rights to control the use of your image.
Have you had to protect your publicity rights? How was someone else trying to cash in on your name without your permission?
Klein Trial Lawyers – Los Angeles business litigation lawyers