How do personality rights protect celebrities?
26-08-2023
12:06 PM
1 min read
What’s in today’s article?
- Personality rights – About, legal/constitutional recognition, various SC judgements etc.
Why in News?
- The Delhi High Court has issued an interim order to restrict the unlawful use of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan's name, image and voice, which could infringe on the actor's personality rights.
What are personality rights?
- Personality right refers to the right of a person to protect his/her personality under the right to privacy or property.
- These rights are important to celebrities as their names, photographs or even voices can easily be misused in various advertisements by different companies to boost their sales.
- A large list of unique personal attributes (name, nickname, stage name, picture, likeness, image and any identifiable personal property), which contribute to the making of a celebrity, need to be protected.
- Personality rights consist of two types of rights -
- The right of publicity, or the right to keep one’s image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission. It is similar (but not identical) to the use of a trademark.
- The right to privacy or the right to not have one’s personality represented publicly without permission.
What is legal or constitutional recognition of personality rights in India?
- In India, the publicity rights are governed by statutes like the Trademarks Act 1999 and the Copyright Act 1957.
- With the 2017 judgment (Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India), the personality rights were elevated to the position of constitutional rights.
- The ruling formally recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right derived from the right to life and personal liberty, as provided by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
- The court ruled that an individual may be permitted to prevent others from using his/her image, name and other aspects of his/her personal life and identity for commercial purposes without his/her consent.
Other SC judgments related to personality rights:
- Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (aka Rajinikanth) v. Varsha Production: Though there is no definition for the personality right under any statute in India, the Courts in India have recognized the personality right in various judgments.
- ICC Development (International) Ltd., Vs. Arvee Enterprises: The right of publicity has evolved from the right of privacy and any effort to take away this right from the individuals would be violative of Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
Personality rights on internet
- In 2011, the Delhi HC (in Arun Jaitley vs Network Solutions Pvt Ltd) stated that the popularity or fame of individuals will be no different on the internet than in reality.
- Name, due to its peculiar nature/distinctive character, coupled with the gained popularity has become a well-known personal mark under the trademark law.
Personal rights vs consumer rights
- While celebrities are protected from commercial misuse of their name and personality, there have also been instances where the consumers are misled owing to false advertisements or endorsements by such personalities.
- Due to such cases, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has made a notification - Guidelines on Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022, to keep a check on misleading adverts of consumer products by imposing a penalty on the endorser.
Q1) What is personality infringement?
Personality infringement is any kind of unauthorized commercial exploitation of a celebrity's identity or part of identity that violates his personality rights, especially because the identity has been earned with hard work.
Q2) Do personality rights expire?
Yes. Unlike normal personality rights which are at least judicially recognized, posthumous personality rights are neither statutorily nor recognized by the Court. This came up in Deepa Jayakumar v. AL Vijay wherein the court held that they cannot be inherited in India, whether they are legal heirs or not.