Guernsey's Image Rights Ordinance could mean the island
offers a golden opportunity for those looking to protect their
personality
For modern famous faces whose livelihood depends on – and
is even generated by – a carefully crafted image, the advent
of Guernsey's newest IP legislation could come as something of
a revelation – and a great relief.
While, as previously highlighted in ITMA Review,
worldwide approaches to image rights are varied and sometimes
vague, the Image Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance 20ı2
("the Ordinance") means the island is the first
jurisdiction in the world in which personalities and their
associated image rights can be registered under the protection of
statutory law. Specifically, the Ordinance allows for the
protection of a personnage of a natural person (living, or
deceased in the past ı00 years) and can also extend to
corporate images, for instance a company such as Disney. The rights
can include not only the name(s) of the
