India's Personality Rights Vacuum: A Critical Examination Of Legal Shortcomings And Reform Needs
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 24
- 1 min read
Yuvam Garg, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
ABSTRACT
The protection of personality rights is an emerging issue in India because the commercial exploitation of personality has increased much more compared to the earlier period. The rights that people have over their name, likeness, reputation, image, and other facets of their identity are referred to as personality rights. If a third party without authorization tries to profit commercially from a person's reputation or such information, the person has the ability to file a case for infringement of rights. Celebrities cherish these rights since they could be improperly used in ads by other companies to boost sales using their names, photos, or even voices. When someone links celebrities to a product without their consent, they are abusing their well- earned fame for personal gain, making the work of these celebrities or personalities meaningless. The primary concern in India pertains to the inadequate safeguarding of personality rights, despite the judiciary's efforts to address these matters through existing intellectual property laws, including but not limited to trademark, passing off, and copyright. A modest attempt is made in this work to identify and elucidate a number of issues related to celebrity rights and IP protection. These rights have been explicitly or implicitly acknowledged by a number of international accords. It explicitly looks to trade mark and right of publicity laws for support, but it also evaluates how inadequate protection is provided by both for a "product" and an "identity". A conscious effort has been made to present an all- inclusive clause that would welcome any potential developments and improvements pertaining to personality characteristics.
