Leader of Manatt Entertainment’s Litigation Practice Robert Jacobs was quoted in an Insider article about the risks involved when companies use celebrity memes or their name, image and likeness without consent to promote their brands.
Leveraging popular celebrity memes has been an increasingly popular strategy for brands promoting themselves on TikTok, but the practice has its legal limits. Jacobs said that, without securing advance consent to use a celebrity’s name, image or likeness for promotional purposes, brands “would face potential exposure under both federal and state law,” including false endorsements and right of publicity laws that differ state to state and across the world.
"Although some might suggest that brands could defend against such theories on the grounds that the particular celebrity likeness they've used is a commonplace meme, the commercial nature of promotional videos casts significant doubt on the viability of such a defense," Jacobs said.
Insider subscribers can read the article here.