Personality rights being an abstract topic in itself make the task of defining its legal boundaries even more challenging. However a rough definition of the same would be that ‘Personality rights means a right of person related to his or her personality. They can be protected under right to privacy or as a property of a person. This is important to mostly celebrities because people use a celebrity name or a photograph to advertise their trade and this usage influences their sales’[1].  Considering the nascent stage at which India stands currently makes this unexplored area even more testing and stimulating. 

Therefore in this article, the author attempts to put some light on the workings of the current regime in terms of personality rights, secondly the instrumentalities of the same on an International Platform. Lastly, examining the room for improvement yet left under this domain.

• An Indian Perspective

It would not be wrong to point out that personality rights have been majorly and largely for a fair share of time been associated with the fields of sports, more so for the right reasons. It is for this reason that the intersection of personality rights and IPR came into the public eye up till recently, when famous sports personalities like Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar have protected their image rights and personality rights by trademarking their names and the domain names of their websites.

This also brings us to the famous case law of  CC Development (International) v Arvee Enterprises, where the Indian courts have read the right to publicity into articles 19 and 21 of the Indian constitution by calling it an inherent part of the right to privacy, an established constitutional right. [2]These rights have also been given the status of IP rights which means they continue to exist even after the death of the holder of these rights.

• An International Perspective

In the International Arena as well, organizations have garnered heavy profits by drawing upon the player’s rights. In September 2013, Real Madrid bought Welsh footballer Gareth Bale for a world record transfer fee of £85.3 million (US$105.3 million). Bale in return assigned 50% of his image rights to Real Madrid, which eventually helped the club to recover the massive investment by using his image rights for the sale of merchandise and other product endorsements.[3]

Thereby it is fit to say that Personality rights and IP regime are uncharted territories with a substantial scope of improvement after the amalgamation of both the Personality rights and IPR in terms of their legal structures and questions to linger on what could be the aftermath after the by-product of these two regimes is institutionalized.

BY

AVANTIKA SHUKLA

BA-LLB 3th Year

BVDU NEW LAW COLLEGE, PUNE

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[1] https://www.mondaq.com/india/trademark/677226/personality-rights-in-indian-scenario

[2] https://law.asia/celebrities-just-what-are-their-personality-rights/

[3] https://law.asia/celebrities-just-what-are-their-personality-rights/