Character

Merchandising
What is character
merchandising ?
Character merchandising can be
defined as the adaptation or
secondary exploitation, by the creator
of a fictional character or by a real
person or by one or several authorized
third parties, of the essential
personality features (such as the
name, image or appearance) of a
character in relation to various goods
and/or services with a view to creating
in prospective customers a desire to
acquire those goods and/or to use
those services because of the
customers affinity with that character.
 Examples of character
merchandising
A toy is the three-dimensional
reproduction of the fictional character
Mickey Mouse;
A T-shirt bears the name or image of the
fictional characters Ninja Turtles;
The label attached to a perfume
bottlebears the name Alain Delon;
Tennis shoes bear the name Andr
Agassi;
An advertising movie campaign for the
drink Coca Cola shows movie star Hritik
Roshan drinking Coca Cola;
Origin of character
merchandising
As an organized system, character
merchandising originated and was initiated in
the United States of America in the 1930s in
the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank
(California). When this company created its
cartoon characters
(Mickey,Minnie,Donald),one of its
employees,Kay Kamen, established a
department specialized in the secondary
commercial exploitation of those characters
and,to the surprise of most, succeeded in
granting an important number of licenses for
the manufacture and distribution of low-priced
mass market merchandise (posters, T-shirts,
toys,buttons,badges,drinks).
 Types of Character
Merchandising
Merchandising of fictional character
Personality merchandising
Image merchandising
 Merchandising of fictional
character
It involves the use of the essential
personality features ( name , image etc )
of fictional charaters in the marketing
and/or advertising of goods and services .
Character merchandising with cartoon
characters involves mainly the use of the
name , image or apperance of the
character . It can be :
o Two dimensional reproduction ( drawing , stickers
etc )
o Three dimensional reproduction ( dolls , keyrings ,
chains etc )
 Personality Merchandising
Involves the use of essential attributes
( name , image , voice and other
personality features ) of real persons in the
marketing and/or advertising of goods and
services .
This is also referred as reputation
merchandising .
 Two forms of personality
merchandising
Use of the name , image ( in two or
three dimensions) or symbol of a real
person .

In the second form , specialist in

certain fields , such as famous sports
or music personalities appear in
advertising campaigns in relation to
goods or services. .
 Image Merchandising
It involves the use of fictional film or
television characters , played by real
actors , in the marketing and
advertising of goods or services. In
those cases, public sometimes, finds
it difficult to differentiated the actors
from the role it plays ( character
portrayed ) .
Examples of image merchandising :
Laurel and hardy
James bond 007 played by Sean
Connery and Roger Moore
 James bond 007

Sean Connery Sean Connery

as James Bond in real life
character
 James bond 007

Roger Moore Roger Moore

as James in real life
bond
character
 Rights and ownership of
characters
Rights attached to the character
Ownership of the rights attached to a
character
Means of lawful merchandising of the
characters
 Rights attached to the
character
The rights attached to the fictional
character can generally be referred
to as property rights which include
economic and exploitation rights .
Personality rights or publicity rights --
With respect to real persons , the
rights attached to the name , image
or appearance of a real person is
referred to as Personality Rights or
publicity rights
Legal protection is also available in a
number of forms either automatically
 Ownership of the rights attached
to a character

They are owned by the creator of the

character unless the creator has
transferred the rights, was
commissioned to create , created in
the course of his professional activity
for his employer or has died.
In case of personality
merchandising , the rights in
principle are owned by the said
person .
Means of lawful merchandising
of the character

Fictional Characters
Automatic rights to use the character
are owned by the :
The creator himself as the owner of
the right .
The holder of the right ( not being
the creator ) pursuant to contract
( by transfer agreement ).
Authorized user ( not being creator )
pursuant to license agreement .
 Real Persons / personality
merchandising

Real person will not himself exploit the

essential features of his personality
directly . He will either entrust agent
or if he wants to participate more
actively set up a company . The main
agreement will be negotiated with a
license agreement or product or
service endorsement agreement .
 Forms of Legal
Protection
There is no law to protect the characters
by itself .
The characters and the rights attached to
it need to be protected by any of the
existing IP Laws .
For fictional character merchandising
the protections available is in the form of
copyright , trademarks , industrial designs
together with protection against unfair
competition .
For personality merchandising