"Celebrity" author enjoys a little celebrity of his own

JIPLP sends its congratulations to contributor Jeremy Blum whose article "Personality disorder: strategies for protecting celebrity names and images in the UK", co-authored with Tom Ohta, was published online today -- the self-same day that leading IP practice Bristows announced Jeremy's promotion to partner with effect from May of this year. The abstract of Jeremy and Tom's article reads like this:

Image rights refer to a person's ability to prevent unauthorised use of his name, likeness or other essential personality features. Although licensing aspects of personality has become a lucrative commodity, in contrast to many other jurisdictions, there is currently no single umbrella right in the UK that protects image rights. This was recently reiterated by the High Court in the successful passing off claim brought by the pop star Rihanna against the retailer, Topshop.

A creative and imaginative approach is therefore required to protect name and image rights in the UK, drawing upon myriad rights whose application and merit will depend on the facts of each case.

In this context, this article explores the potentially enforceable rights, their relative merits and practical strategies to protect name and image rights in the UK.