Comparative Study of Legal Ways to Protect Publicity Value in the United States of America and Iran

The economic exploitation of identity attributes, such as name, voice and image have become possible, especially for celebrities, and this consequently leads to the question about different ways of supporting the mentioned identity attributes. This article uses a descriptive, analytical, and comparative method to study this question in the law of the United States and Iran. The results of this study indicate that, based on the experiences of the United States legal system, contractual and non-contractual liabilities and intellectual property rights cannot fully protect such a right. Thus, over half of the United states recognized an independent right as the "publicity right" by law or Common law or both. In Iran, there is no law that expressly recognizes this right, and we can only resort to traditional solutions. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to take protective provisions in this regard in Iran's law, using US experience in this matter.