“I am internet famous!”: Protecting a new form of ‘celebri-ties’ in the law of passing off
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of the law of passing off as a mechanism to provide legal protection for the ‘status’ of so-called ‘celebrities’. In doing so, the author explores the legal position of a new form of celebrities - those who have achieved the status of celebrities on non-traditional media platforms, as opposed to traditional media such as TV. The author ultimately aims to examine whether, and to what extent, the restrictive approach taken by the jurisdictional based law of passing off provides a sufficient level of protection to the new form of celebrities.
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