Personality Rights: Protection Under IP Laws

With the skyrocketed growth in the consumption of social media content, there is a significant increase with the infringement of intellectual property. Influencers and celebrities who are vested with great following due to their immense recognition via news, accolades, accomplishment acquires personality rights. These rights are prone to be exploited by unauthorised third party for their commercial gains which is unlawful. Several events have been reported recently wherein the unauthorised parties are involved in creation of content through AI in order to mimic the celebrity. Artists like Arijit Singh, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Amitabh Bacchan have already approached the Court for seeking umbrella protection over their personality rights.

Personality rights are legal protections enshrined to individuals to control the commercial use of their identity, including their name, image, likeness, and other personal attributes. Such rights are intended to safeguard an individual’s dignity and reputation for unlawful commercial exploitation. Such rights of celebrities are primarily protected based on judicial interpretations and precedents and various provisions of different Indian laws.

• Constitution of India

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in their landmark K.S. Puttaswamy ruling has recognized the Right to Privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which laid down the foundation for protecting an individual’s identity and persona from unauthorised commercial exploitation. Indian judicial authority has stressed upon the significance of consent in using a person’s identity, particularly celebrities. The breakthrough case of R. Rajagopal vs. State of Tamil Nadu (1994) expanded the right to privacy in India which underscored the importance of protecting personal autonomy against unauthorized exploitation. This case represented a significant turning point, recognizing that individuals, including celebrities, have a rightful interest in managing the commercial use of their personality rights.

• Copyright Act, 1957

Section 14 of the Act grants exclusive right to authorize others to reproduce the work in any form, including conversion of a two dimensional work to three dimensional works and vice versa. The Courts have extended this protection to fictitious characters which fall under the category of artistic work. Furthermore, Section 57 of Copyright Act, 1957 grants moral rights to the authors of copyrighted works which allows them to claim ownership/authorship over their works and restrain or claim damages in case of any distortion or modification of their work if such distortion or modification would be prejudicial to their honour or reputation, even after the assignment of Copyright.

• Trademark Act, 1999

Trademarks Act, 1999 does not hold any specific provision to protect personality rights, however, Section 14 of the Trademark Act, 1999 restricts the registration of a name of any living person or a person who died 20 years prior to the trademark application as a trademark unless the consent of the living person or his/her legal representatives is taken. Furthermore, Section 2(1)(m) of the Trademark Act, 1999 includes the definition of ‘names’ which hallows the celebrities to register their names as trademarks to avoid misuse.

Conclusion

With the rapid commercialisation of emerging trends initiated by celebrities, there is an emerging need to protect and recognize the commercial aspect of celebrity rights. Introduction of statutes and rules like IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics) Rules 2021 pertaining to AI and Deepfakes are constituted in the nascent stage to fill up the lacunae pertaining to misuse of personality rights. However, strict legal framework governing its commercial exploitation needs to be studied and recognized through holistic approach to protect personality rights .

Disclaimer: This article was first published in the S&A Law Offices - 'Intellectual Property (IP-Tech)' newsletter in September 2024.