Nutzung der Abbilder von Personen des öffentlichen Interesses zu Werbezwecken

Images of famous personalities are valuable economic assets and advertising companies may not infrequently be tempted to instrumentalize celebrities without their consent. The success rate of legal proceedings against such practices is considerably lower than it used to be, as the advertising message is now often coupled with statements protected through constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech, press or art. To a certain extent, the once exclusive right to commercialisation has thereby given way to a common property approach. The present analysis offers a critical study of personality rights jurisprudence, and examines how far personal advertising value can be protected through the medium of virtual intellectual property rights. As well as alternative protective regimes such as “copyrights of celebrity“, the author also looks in detail at trade mark registration of prominent portraits, and unfair competition law against imitation and deception.