Commentary: Legal Advice - Dr. X Will Build a Creature

Summary

---

The right of publicity is the right of every human being to control the commercial use of his or her identity. Commercial use normally requires some attempt on the part of the infringer to sell a product or service. It does not mean, for example, use of someone's name or photo in connection with political commentary. Prof. McCarthy asserts that this right is not the province of the celebrity, but belongs to every person, celebrity or not.

But the cases are far more interesting, and the damages are exacerbated, when a celebrity's likeness is used without permission, because there is often a comparable market against which to measure the celebrity's value. A few years ago, while defending the unauthorized use of the deceased Orson Welles' name in an ad campaign I discovered he was paid the pittance of $25,000 to be the voice-over in Eastern Airline's Wings of Man campaign decades earlier. I was able to use that payment to establish damages where liability was not contested, and the case settled.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Commentary: Legal Advice - Dr. X Will Build a Creature

These cases can take strange twists and turns, and one reason is two opinions of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case in which game-show hostess Vanna White sued Samsung over its use of a Vanna-like robot in an ad. In an often cri...

See the full content of this document

---