Onishi, Hiroko (2021) Unwrapping the protection for celebrities in passing off. In: 36th Annual British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association (BILETA) Conference 2021 : Taken by Surprise : (Re-)constituting the Critical in an Age of Digital and Pandemic; 14-16 Apr 2021, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. (Held Online). (Unpublished)

Abstract

The author argues that providing the adequate protection for the ‘statue’ of celebrities has become significant based on the following grounds: (i) the commercial and marketing values of celebrities’ names, images, fame and likeness have played an integral part of business; (ii) means, in which the commercial attractiveness attached to ‘celebrities’ can be misappropriated, has dramatically increased as a result of as a result of technological advancement; (iii) platforms that can help achieving the ‘status’ of ‘celebrities' has also drastically increased and diversified as a result of the rapid expansion of the fast growing video-sharing social networking sites, such as YouTube and Tiktok and the photo and video-sharing social networking sites such as Instagram. The paper argues that in current times misappropriation can be very easily achieved and a likelihood of non-celebrities obtaining the ‘status’ of ‘celebrity’ has tremendously increased, it is time for us to revisit how law can provide the appropriate protection for ‘celebrities’ in both traditional and non-traditional senses when their status has been misappropriated by a third party.

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