Mat Honan of Wired Magazine wrote an article for Gadget Lab entitled 'The Username Is a Relic. Here’s How to Fix It' on 19 February 2014. In it he argues that notwithstanding the fact that we are all just a string of numbers on a computer, usernames used in isolation are obsolete and must be used in conjunction with other identifiers.  Can we protect our online personalities by registering them in an Image Rights Registry? Can our Usernames be deemed to be images? Mat makes an excellent point here. No one can rely on a single item of data to uniquely identify oneself. For our own uniqueness to be meaningful it requires context. We are made up of combinations of what is otherwise non-unique data. I am a short blonde female with blue eyes called Angel born on April 23rd at 4.03 am. Alt... Read More

http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/ So – Rita Ora has fallen out with the company with which she reportedly had an ‘agreement’ – presumably a product endorsement agreement in respect of the Superga clothing range reported here.  The point is not so much that she had an agreement (and there’s no indication of the terms therein),  but rather the fact that her image rights – such as they are – are limited to the terms of that agreement.  “Image Rights do not exist in English law”, to paraphrase Mr. Justice Birss’ apt reminder last year in the Rihanna v Topshop spat. According to the report, “Rita Ora has also asked for an injunction to be put in place, to stop the company from selling goods linked to her”.  That’s all well and good, but her ability to bring... Read More

Trademarks are an aspect of corporate personality. Image rights involve the commercial appropriation or exploitation of a personality’s identity and associated images. Amazon and other search engines use these names and images as “Adwords” to encourage consumers to click on related items. This, in turn, diminishes the value of a trademark and causes it to become too closely associated with a certain class of goods. In Cosmetic Warriors Limited & Lush Limited v Amazon.co.uk Limited & Amazon EU SARL, [2014] EWHC 181 (Ch), the Judge found Amazon had infringed the registered Community Trade Mark for “LUSH” under Article 5(1)(a) of Directive 2008/95/EC. The infringement stemmed from Amazon’s directing consumers to the sale of equivalent products to those sold by Lush thro... Read More

In the case of Edem v Information Commissioner, [2014] EWCA Civ 92, the Court of Appeal confirmed the scope of its ruling in the Durant case. “An individual's name constitutes their personal data.” Although the Court noted that a name may not constitute an individual's personal data where the name is so common that without further information (such as its use in a work context) a person would remain unidentifiable. The Court narrowed the application of Durant v FSA, [2003] EWCA Civ 1746, where personal data was determined using the following criteria: The data must: • be biographical in a significant sense; and • have the data subject as its focus. However, context was key in the Durant case. Mr Durant had requested access to documents in which he was merely mentioned b... Read More

Icondia, the Image Rights Registration specialist, is delighted to announce that it has just submitted an application for registration of the Image Rights for Guernsey Football Club (“GFC”) as a corporate personality. This represents the first registration of a football club under the Image Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance 2012 (“the IRO”). Through the registration of Image Rights, this is the first law in the world specifically written to allow ‘personality’ to become an asset, in the form intellectual property. As a result of GFC registering its personality, any unique and distinctive attributes of the club personality may receive statutory protection against the deliberate infringement and unauthorised economic exploitation of those images by others. Downloa... Read More

How would you feel if you were an actor whose performance had been hi-jacked for a film you didn't approve of and which resulted in you receiving death-threats? That's exactly the position that Cindy Lee Garcia found herself in after working on a film she thought was entitled 'Desert Warrior', but which actually turned out to be the highly controversial film 'Innocence of Muslims'. Cindy Lee Garcia, was hired to perform 4 pages of script over 3 days in an action film entitled Desert Warrior. She was not told of the film's true nature nor given a copy of the full film script. Her lines were later dubbed so that she appeared to ask whether Mohammed was a child molester. Needless to say, when the film came out she received death threats from Muslim extremists. She further claimed that she nev... Read More

Image rights involve the commercial appropriation or exploitation of a person’s identity and associated images linked to that person. They are related to the distinctive expressions, characteristics or attributes of, or associated with, a personality made available to public perception. Image rights are an integral part of artistic expression and a product of celebrity or sporting achievement in the twenty-first century. Image Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance establishes a new form of intellectual property, previously unrecognized in a registrable form. Two key concepts anchor the legislation: (1) the “registered personality”, and (2) “images” which are associated with or registered against that registered personality. The core right is the registered personality (Adrian,... Read More

Image rights involve the commercial appropriation or exploitation of a personality’s identity and associated images. In this case, we are dealing with a fish on a mission. He (?) has distinctive expressions, characteristics or attributes of, or associated with, his personality made available to public perception. Image rights are an integral part of his artistic and creative expression. This fish is a celebrity. He has a following of 5 million people (not just other fish) and has earned £35 million in 3 years. Visual image, sound bites and the cult of the celebrity are powerful forces, which can determine success or failure in nearly every aspect of public life, be it politics, performing arts or social communication of how amazing fish really is. The commoditization of image has real v... Read More

Identity is not merely a set of facts: name, location, employment, position, age, gender, or merely certain online behaviours. Some part of identity is controlled by the individual, but most of identity is created by the world in which that individual operates. We can think of identity as a streaming picture of a life within a particular context. Each of us has multiple identities (Clarke, 1994). The role of groups in shaping ‘real life’ identities is implicit, as is the multiplicity of ‘real life’ identity. Our online lives demonstrate this point. As such, each discrete identity needs protection from the new threats that arise from new technologies. The Bailiwick of Guernsey’s new Image Rights Ordinance has numerous benefits which can protect an identity both as an individual... Read More

Abstract: The Image Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance establishes a new form of intellectual property,  previously unrecognised in a registrable form.  Two key concepts anchor the legislation: (1) the "registered personality" and (20) "images" which are associated with or registered against that registered personality.   The core right is the registered personality.  Mickey Mouse can now register his image and be protected forever. Reprint of an article first published in the European Intellectual Property Review,  Issue 7, 2013 Download the Full Insight   Read More