Right of Publicity Counseling

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Intellectual Property and TechnologyRight of Publicity

Right of publicity counseling that helps talent and brands clear, license, and protect name, image, and likeness across a patchwork of state laws, so you can act with confidence instead of guesswork.

Your name, image, and likeness have value, and the law that protects them changes the moment you cross a state line. We counsel talent who want to control and monetize their identity, and brands that need to use real people in their marketing without buying a lawsuit. The goal is the same on both sides: clear answers about what you can do and how to do it cleanly.

Counseling Talent And Personalities

If you are an athlete, creator, performer, or public figure, your identity is a business asset worth managing deliberately. We help you set the terms on which your name, image, and likeness get used, build protection strategies around endorsement and licensing deals, and plan for the long run, including how publicity rights pass through your estate. You decide how your identity works for you; we make the legal mechanics support that.

Brand And Marketing Clearance

Using a real person in an ad, a campaign, or a product almost always means you need permission, and the line between fine and risky is rarely obvious. We tell you when consent is required, secure the right releases, and document them so a deal does not unravel later. For borderline uses, we give you a straight read on the exposure before you commit budget, not after a demand letter lands.

Sorting Out State Law

Right of publicity is governed state by state, and the differences matter. We work out which state's law applies, what it actually protects, how long that protection lasts after death, and what remedies are on the table. That analysis drives the practical decisions, whether you are locking down your own rights or deciding how far a marketing use can go without crossing a state's specific rules.

AI Likenesses And New Tech

AI-generated likenesses, virtual influencers, NFTs, and metaverse avatars raise publicity questions the older case law never anticipated, and the rules are still forming. As former engineers, we understand how these systems actually generate and reuse a person's identity, so we can give you grounded advice on synthetic voices, digital doubles, and deepfake-adjacent uses instead of hand-waving about emerging issues.

Frequently asked questions

As a rule, using a person's identity to sell or promote something requires their consent. Editorial, newsworthy, and genuinely transformative uses may be protected without it. Because the line turns on context, the safe move is to check before you publish rather than after.

Often it is the law of the state where the person is domiciled, but the law of the state where the dispute is brought can also come into play. Publicity rights differ enough between states that the answer can change the outcome. We look at the relevant jurisdictions together rather than assuming one applies.

Spell out the permitted uses, the media and platforms covered, the territory, how long the permission lasts, and any restrictions. The goal is to be specific enough that everyone knows what is allowed while still covering everything you actually plan to do. A vague release tends to fail exactly when you need to rely on it.

It depends entirely on the state, because posthumous publicity rights are wildly inconsistent, some states give none, others protect for decades after death. The first step is figuring out which state's law controls and whether rights survive there. That tells you whose permission, if anyone's, you need.

Not necessarily. Using a look-alike or sound-alike specifically to evoke a celebrity can still violate their publicity rights, even though you never used the real person. Courts look at whether the intent and effect were to trade on that person's identity. Treat it as a risk to evaluate, not a loophole.

Yes, very likely. An AI-generated image that depicts a recognizable person can implicate their publicity rights the same way a photo would. The cautious practice is to get permission before using AI to create images of identifiable individuals for commercial purposes.

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