[CHAPTER
482P]



PUBLICITY
RIGHTS



 



[§482P-1]  Definitions.  As used in this
chapter, unless the context clearly requires otherwise:



"Characteristic" means a distinctive
appearance, gesture, or mannerism recognized as an identifying attribute of a
personality.



"Deceased individual" means any
individual, regardless of the individual's place of domicile, residence, or
citizenship at the time of death or otherwise, who has died.



"Deceased personality" means any
individual, regardless of the personality's place of domicile, residence, or
citizenship at the time of death or otherwise, whose name, voice, signature, or
likeness had commercial value at the time of the individual's death, whether or
not during the lifetime of that individual, the individual used the
individual's name, voice, signature, or likeness on or in products,
merchandise, goods, or for purposes of advertising, selling, or soliciting the
purchase or sale of products, merchandise, goods, or services.



"Fund-raising" means an organized
activity to solicit donations of money or other goods or services from persons
or entities by an organization, company, or public entity.  A fund-raising
activity does not include a live, public performance by an individual or group
of individuals for which money is received in solicited or unsolicited
gratuities.



"Individual" means a natural person,
living or dead.



"Likeness" means an image,
photograph, painting, sketching, model, diagram, or other recognizable
representation of an individual's face or body, and includes, in the case of a
personality, a characteristic.



"Name" means the actual or assumed
name, or nickname, of a living or deceased individual that is intended to
identify that individual.



"Person" means any natural person,
firm, association, partnership, corporation, company, syndicate, receiver,
common law trust, conservator, statutory trust, or any other entity by whatever
name known or however organized, formed, or created, and includes nonprofit
corporations, associations, educational and religious institutions, political
parties, and community, civic, or other organizations.



"Personality" means any individual
whose name, voice, signature, likeness, or other attribute of their personality
has commercial value, whether or not that individual uses the individual's
name, voice, signature, likeness, or other attribute of their personality on or
in products, merchandise, goods, or for purposes of marketing, advertising,
selling, or soliciting the purchase of products, merchandise, goods, or
services.



"Photograph" means any photograph or
photographic reproduction, still or moving, or any videotape, online or live
television transmission, of any individual, in which the individual is readily
identifiable.



"Publicity rights trade name registration"
means a registration with the department of commerce and consumer affairs of a
trade name under chapter 482, using the department's procedures for trade name
registration, wherein the trade name shall consist of the assigning individual
or personality's full legal name and the words "publicity rights",
preferably in all capital letters.  In administering publicity rights trade
name registrations under this chapter, the department shall be exempt from:



(1)  Any liability in excess of that which the
department would have for a trade name registration, other than a "publicity
rights trade name registration";



(2)  Any duty to decide between competing registrants
or the rights established by registration; and



(3)  Any duty to construe the meaning of any provision
of this chapter;



provided that the duties under paragraphs (2) and
(3) shall be duties of the courts of competent jurisdiction.



"Signature" means a handwritten or
otherwise legally binding form of an individual's name, written or authorized
by that individual, that distinguishes the individual from all other
individuals. [L Sp 2009, c 28, pt of §2]