Courses 2023 - 2024

LAW P 525 Right of Publicity

Credits: 1-4, Max 4

The Right of Publicity is an increasingly important and controversial form of intellectual property. Drawing principles from trademark, unfair competition, copyright, and privacy law, it has become a major battleground between the First Amendment’s guarantee of free expression and the commercial interest of individuals in protecting against unauthorized commercial use of their names, likenesses, and personalities. This course focuses on the body of case law generated by state and common law rights of publicity, and seeks to facilitate an understanding of this much-debated area of law, its historical development, what it seeks to protect, and efforts to find balance in the growing tension between the Right of Publicity and the US Constitution.