ARTICLE · 20 JUNE 2018

Celebrity IP: It Can Only Be Messi

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Celebrities have done a great deal to increase awareness of intellectual property ("IP"). The reason for this is simple: celebrities make significant use of IP ...

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Tanith Robertson

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Celebrities have done a great deal to increase awareness of intellectual property ("IP"). The reason for this is simple: celebrities make significant use of IP and when they get into legal spats, their disputes make the news. The reason why celebrities are attracted to IP in the first place is equally simple: they know that they can use IP to significantly increase their wealth.

One way celebrities get richer through IP is by obtaining trade mark registrations for, inter alia, their names, nicknames, signatures, images and catchphrases. These registrations can cover all sorts of goods or services, but things like clothing, cosmetics and jewellery tend to be very popular. They then license their rights to companies to use the trade marks and the companies pay royalties.

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