Hello! to personality rights?

Lauterbach, Thorsten

Abstract

The celebrity wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones has occupied the English courts ever since it took place in New York in 2000. The latest decision relating to that event handed down by the House of Lords in May this year, appears to be opening the gate for so-called 'image' or personality rights. This is a form of intellectual property which, notoriously, does not attract straightforward legal protection on these shores in its own right, although trade mark law and the law of passing off may be of assistance under certain limited circumstances. It is possible for the rich and famous to protect their 'image', including photographic images of themselves, from being exploited commercially without permission in many jurisdictions. Germany, for example, protects such rights as they are linked to an individual's personality. Consequently, Oliver Kahn, the former goal-keeper of the German national football team successfully claimed damages from a computer games business who used aspects of Kahn's physique in a new game without his permission. More recently, the heir of actress Marlene Dietrich was equally successful against an advertiser who used the image of Dietrich without permission.

Citation

LAUTERBACH, T. 2007. Hello! to personality rights? Scottish law gazette, 75(3), pages 100-102.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jun 30, 2007
• Publication Date: Jun 30, 2007
• Deposit Date: Feb 19, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 20, 2024
• Journal: Scottish law gazette
• Print ISSN: 0036-9314
• Publisher: Scottish Law Agents Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 75
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 100-102
• Keywords: Personality rights; Image; Legal protection; Celebrity; Intellectual property
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2249157