Cases brought under US state right of publicity laws often draw
on concepts in trademark and copyright law. Roxana Sullivan of
Dennemeyer & Associates explains more.
The right of publicity, also called personality rights, prevents
the unauthorised commercial use of a person's likeness, name,
or other recognisable aspect of his or her persona. As a result, it
gives an individual the exclusive right to license the use of his
or her identity for commercial gain. In the US, state law governs
the right of publicity and only about half of the states have
specific right of publicity statutes.
US courts have a long history of reviewing right of publicity
cases in a variety of media, and over the years they have applied a
variety of tests to balance publicity rights with the First
Amendment (right of free speech). The only Supreme Court case to
address that balance is Zacchini, which involved
appropriation of the 'Human Cannonball' act created by the
daredevil plaintiff. A
