The Sanctions of Celebrities’ Image Rights in Iranian Law

Nowadays, by the increasing positive impact of personality characteristics of celebrities on the attractiveness of goods and services, celebrities found the value of their economic image in commercial advertising, which made the sponsors more willing to conclude license contracts with them. In this area, celebrities’ rights are called “image rights”. The exploitation of celebrities’ image rights is logically in return for payment of costs under contract; however, there is possibility of unauthorized exploitation that cause celebrity to sustain loss and affect her/his economic interests. In some western countries, new institution called “Publicity Rights” has been recognized or the tools of intellectual Property Rights and Civil Liability have been used to protect image rights. In the Iranian legal system, due to insufficient coverage of Intellectual Property Law to this issue, this issue is vague and this may lead to injustice for celebrities. Because the unauthorized use of image rights of celebrities cause them financial and moral loss, which the belief to lack of prevention or lack of relief, is contrary to the general principles of law and morality. Thus, because of the lack of specific protection, to compensate their loss, celebrities can invoke to civil liability and tort law.