The right to control the commercial use of a person’s identity has become a critical element in today’s high exposure marketing and advertising endeavors. Sponsorships, endorsements and social media are only some of the venues for which an individual’s name, image, photograph, voice, signature or other aspect of their often unique identity can be commercially leveraged or exploited. Best & Flanagan’s Intellectual Property team represents famous individuals and prominent businesses in leveraging, protecting and enforcing their publicity rights.

We have worked closely with celebrities and high profile individuals in the stewardship, licensing and protection of the full array of publicity rights. We negotiate comprehensive agreements that authorize and control the use of their name and likeness in connection with endorsing and marketing products and services, in a way that is consistent with their objectives and values. We also work with clients to police such rights, including unauthorized use of names and likeness. We aggressively defend our client’s legal rights in litigation in both state and federal court.

Where privacy is a concern, we work to protect the private lives and personal information of our high profile clients, and to keep a wall of separation between their public work and private lives.