Celebrities: Just what are their personality rights?

Image/personality rights, also known as the right to publicity, protects against the unauthorised appropriation of an individual’s persona, which would result in an unearned commercial gain to another. In the field of sports, the unauthorised use of the image/personality for a commercial purpose would result in infringement of the individual sportsperson’s image or personality rights.

The right to publicity does not constitute a statutory right in India. Indian courts (at the level of the High Court) have recognized the right to publicity and laid down essential components for its infringement. The Supreme Court has not yet disposed of a case pertaining to this right.

LEGAL SOURCES

There is no specific legislation in India to protect image or personality rights. Through various judgments, especially ICC Development (International) v Arvee Enterprises, 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. Further, image or personality rights are a form of intellectual property (IP) rights, which can survive even after the death of the individual.

LAKSHMI KRUTTIKA VIJAY is a managing associate in the litigation department at Anand and Anand, while ROHAN SHARMA is an associate in the IT and e-commerce litigation team at the firm.