Character Merchandising: Protection Under IP Laws

This book addresses the key issues, challenges and implications arising out of unauthorised acts of character merchandising. It offers deep insights into the philosophical justifications for the protection of persona. The book examines what qualifies as a character and its legal rights, namely property rights, personality rights and publicity rights. In the absence of any explicit statutory protection of characters, this work provides new insights into how intellectual property laws can be used to prevent unauthorized character merchandising. It critically evaluates various tests introduced by courts to determine the copyrightability of characters. It also analyses the dicta of the different courts justifying the effective protection of the rights of publicity. Since there is no uniform standard for the recognition and protection of image rights, this book presents a global perspective and developments on the subject with the help of judicial decisions. Drawing on the diverse judicial treatments, it explores whether an exclusive legal approach is required to address the concerns that emerge from unauthorised character merchandising.

The book is of immense interest for researchers, academicians, policy makers and practitioners who work in this area. For researchers and academicians, the book offers new insights on how IP laws can be used to prevent unauthorized exploitation of persona. For practitioners, it provides an effective and more consistent approach to the interpretation of international intellectual property instruments. For policymakers, the objectives of protecting the legal rights of characters, is of specific interest. The book will further be of interest to governmental organizations and NGOs who want to advance their lawful merchandising agendas.