Over the past decade, college athletes have launched numerous legal challenges to the exploitation of their likeness on television, in video games, and elsewhere.  But balancing the publicity rights of college athletes with the creative expression rights of video game makers is not an easy task.  Since no clear answer can be found in state right of publicity statutes, some courts have narrowed the circumstances under which these athletes can allege violations of their likenesses, while others turned to preemption under federal copyright law and the First Amendment to defeat the athletes' claims. Our panel will discuss the publicity rights of college athletes and consider whether a balance may be better established by analogy to other, more developed, areas of intellectual property law.

Credits: 1.5 Hours; --- Ethics

Sponsor: Intellectual Property Section