Clearing and Licensing Name, Image, and Likeness: A Practitioner's Guide for Brands, Creators, and Athletes
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide is the operational companion to Marksy's right of publicity article: it assumes the doctrine and spends its length on execution, walking a single national campaign through fifteen numbered stages from scoping the use to enforcing against a voice clone. It shows how to run the choice-of-law analysis first rather than last, why domicile at death decides post-mortem matters before anyone reaches the merits, and how to build a clearance file that survives a plaintiff's document request. It gives model language a practitioner can adapt for the grant of rights, the exclusivity and category definitions, the morals and reverse-morals clauses, the usage sunset and sell-off, and the separate digital replica consent that California Labor Code section 927 now requires. It covers the NIL compliance stack in sequence, including school policy disclosure windows, collective structures, clearinghouse review, the Revised Uniform Athlete Agents Act, SPARTA, and the extra formalities that apply when the endorser is a minor. It works through the clearance problems that stall productions, including crowd shots, tattoos, vehicles, look-alikes, stock library restrictions, and AI-generated composites, and it maps the estate diligence chain for deceased personalities including the California and New York registration prerequisites. It closes with the enforcement sequence, the anti-SLAPP and fee-shifting exposures that decide whether a claim is worth filing, and a fully worked deepfake fact pattern from evidence capture to remedy.
IP and Technology > Right of Publicity | Guide | Published 18 March 2025 - Updated 1 December 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This guide is the operational companion to Marksy's right of publicity article. It assumes the doctrine and spends its length on execution, walking a single national campaign through fifteen numbered stages — from scoping the use to enforcing against a voice clone. It shows how to run choice of law first rather than last, why domicile at death decides post-mortem matters before anyone reaches the merits, and how to build a clearance file that survives a document request. It gives model language for the grant of rights, exclusivity and category definitions, morals and reverse-morals clauses, the usage sunset and sell-off, and the separate digital replica consent California now requires. It covers the NIL compliance stack in sequence — school policy, collectives, clearinghouse review, athlete-agent regulation, and minors — and works through the clearance problems that actually stall productions: crowd shots, tattoos, vehicles, look-alikes, stock restrictions, and AI composites. It maps the estate diligence chain for deceased personalities, and closes with the enforcement sequence, the fee-shifting and anti-SLAPP exposures that decide whether a claim is worth filing, and a fully worked deepfake fact pattern.
Keywords: nil clearance · likeness release · endorsement agreement drafting · grant of rights clause · morals clause · digital replica consent · post-mortem right of publicity registration · choice of law domicile · california civil code 3344 · new york civil rights law 50 · elvis act · ftc endorsement guides · nil collective · uniform athlete agents act · crowd shot clearance · tattoo copyright clearance · voice clone enforcement · sunset on usage · sell-off period · anti-slapp right of publicity
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