Research On Ascription And Protection Of The Right Of Publicity Of Sports Stars

As the 29th Beijing Olympics games successfully closed, some sports stars turn up, while quantities of business opportunities effectively stimulate domestic demands, and give a motivation for the high-speed development of national economy. In the past, constrained by system and conservative ideas, the lives of sports stars was almost in some kind of entire closed situation. But with the development of sport, Chinese athletes achieve great success in international competitions. Some well-known athletes which show great commercial value, just like pop stars, become real sports stars, and even play leading roles in many commercial activities. Sports stars have already become a rising industry, which can bring society a huge economic efficiency, and present professionalism and commercialization tendency. However, while these sports stars achieve great success in market, the related contradiction and difference also show up. As for the hysteresis of legal system and the unique whole nation system, some legal relation caused by sports stars being spokesperson in advertisement is facing the awkward situation of no relative law in this field, thus there is no relative law for sports stars' legal right to depend on. The protection of the right of publicity is one of those problems. The protection of the right of publicity is a worldwide problem, not only because the big difference between each countries' legal system, but also for the sports' own organization is never concerned by the legist, meanwhile, athletes' liquidity and the sports' internationalism make it difficult to fully protect the right of publicity of athletes. Under the whole nation system in sport in China, the ascription of the right of publicity of sports stars is quite different from other countries, and there are many misty and improper parts in related law, and much dispute between sports stars and sports administration. In applying laws, because the right of publicity, as a kind of property right, is different from personal rights, mainly manifests depending on the market transaction, it is defective to analogise the law of personal right, intelligent property right, anti-malfeasant competition and so on. In the meantime, the growing sports market and industry require establishment of the specialized law for the right of publicity, which can further promote the development of the market and protect the right of publicity of sports stars. So comparing the different rules in different country, combining actual situation in our country, elaborated expounding the protection of the right of publicity, has the significant theory and the practice value.