Fox settles with Muhammad Ali Enterprises

The $30 million lawsuit filed by Muhammad Ali Enterprises against Fox, for a three minute promo ad that ran in advance of the 2017 Super Bowl.  While Fox felt that the spot was protected, the problem with that theory is the spot had all of the hallmarks of an advertisement, and functioned as an advertisement over all else.  Such uses are the kind the right of publicity is designed to address.  And while a settlement is not a judicial interpretation, the fact that it settled would seem to confirm that Fox overstepped the bounds in this instance.  Here’s a link to a prior entry when the suit was still pending:  Muhammad Ali Ent. files $30M suit over Super Bowl ad

Taylor Swift’s right of publicity defense

Taylor Swift recently stood up to Apple’s plans to use music for free, and Apple relented.  Apparently next on her list, Taylor Swift is taking on right of publicity infringements in China.  Her strategy could perhaps be described with  “the best defense is a strong offense.”

The July 21, 2015 edition of Wall Street Journal reports on a variety of licensed goods that Swift is introducing in China.  Taylor Swift’s popularity in China has predictably resulted in a lot of infringing goods in the marketplace.  The best way to combat such a problem, when one has the clout and market potential to do so as Swift does, is to make authorized goods available to meet demand.

Here’s a link to the WSJ article:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/taylor-swift-counters-knockoffs-in-china-1437492360

#rightofpublicity

#China

#infringements

#celebritylicensing

#TaylorSwift

#expertwitness

Brief note on coverage of Massachusetts Senate’s passage of Right of Publicity bill

The Massachusetts Senate has passed a bill urged by Bill Cosby to statutorily recognize a post-mortem Right of Publicity in Massachusetts.  The bill heads next to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  I’m including a link (below) to NPR’s coverage of this very positive legislative development.

As is often the case when the media covers the Right of Publicity, the coverage does not give the most balanced picture of the functioning of these rights and the policy purposes behind them.  That’s probably the fault of no one or nothing other than time limitations and the need to get in and out of a complex topic in short segments. But, for example, it’s really not that difficult to determine who owns the Right of Publicity of a personality after a person dies, as the host declares.  The coverage also does not point out all the limitations and allowances for First Amendment purposes that accompany most Right of Publicity statutes.  And lastly, I strongly caution against acting on host Anthony Brooks’ conclusion that “if a business wants to trade on the image of Marilyn Monroe, they can.”  (Just after the 2:00 mark in the NRP clip.)

Professor Ray Madoff of Boston College Law School does a good job discussing some of the high points of the Right of Publicity.  To the credit of the producer of this segment on NPR/Radio Boston, I (the administrator of http://www.RightofPublicity.com) was consulted to verify certain information about Right of Publicity statutes throughout the country (the part in the interview when the host Sacha Pfeiffer says “we looked this up”).

Here’s a link to the radio segment: http://radioboston.wbur.org/2014/06/13/dead-right-publicity