In today's society, understanding the importance of Personality Rights has become crucial, whether you are a celebrity or an ordinary person, everyone has the right to control the use of their identity.
Personality Rights, also known as right of publicity, give individuals control over the use and commercialization of their identity, including appearance, voice and distinctive character. For example, using an image of Prabhas in his Baahubali outfit on a T-shirt for sale can involve both personality and character #merchandising rights. While many believe that personality rights only pertain to #publicfigures or celebrities, the truth is that these rights extend to all individuals. The right to privacy is guaranteed to all individuals, famous or not. Article 21 of Indian Constitution expands its horizon in providing protection to the Personality #rights and precludes others from misusing such rights in an unauthorized way.
Although not defined in the Indian Copyright Act, in 2012 Delhi High Court defined the term ‘celebrity’ as someone who is well-known or frequently talked about. Under the Act, a ‘performer’ is defined as someone who makes a performance, including #actors, #singers, #musicians, #dancers, and others. Hence, a celebrity is also a performer and entitled to the same rights.
Section 38A of the Copyright Act provides a significant exclusive right to #performers that prohibits making sound or visual recordings, reproducing, broadcasting, or communicating their performance to the public without their consent. Thus, the notion that using an individual's image or likeness from the public domain doesn't require their consent, is false.
Likewise, Indian Trademark Act, does not specify any exclusive protection for Personality and #image rights. However, one can register one’s own name as a Trademark as elucidated under Section 2(m) of Trademarks Act, 1999. Several Indian celebrities like Baba Ramdev, Kajol, Karan Johar and many other famous #personalities have pursued the Trademark route to prevent the misappropriation of their names.
However, there exists no sui generis #law for protection of the #publicity rights, reliance is placed upon the courts who have recognized and protected the rights, through interpreting the existing Statutes.
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