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 bottle
bears the name Alain Delon;
Tennis shoes bear the name Andr
Agassi;

Examples

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-

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
characters in the marketing and/or advertising of
goods and services.
Character merchandising with cartoon characters
involves mainly the use of the name , image or
appearance of the character . It can be :
Two dimensional reproduction ( drawing , stickers etc )
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 differentiate the actors from the
role it plays ( character portrayed ) .

James bond 007

Sean Connery
as James Bond
character

Sean Connery
in real life

James bond 007

Roger Moore
as James
bond
character

Roger Moore
in real life

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 or under certain conditions -- copyright , personality or
publicity rights , trademark or industrial designs .

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

More Examples