A Study On The Commodification Of Personality Rights

Along with the development of the commercialised economy,the commercialisation of personality rights has become a major trend in the current social development.The property attributes in personality rights are becoming more and more prominent and of higher value for exploitation.At present,it is still an issue worth exploring how to guarantee the commercialisation of personality rights in China on the basis of the Civil Code.The commercialisation of personality rights means that some of the rights of personality in a market economy can be legally licensed to others for use,transfer or inheritance,and can be remedied through property damages in case of infringement.The commercialisation of personality rights is one of the expansions of personality rights,but it only recognises that personality rights have property interests and does not overturn traditional personality rights.The establishment of the right of personality in the form of a marker and the separation of some of the rights of personality from the person,the development of information technology and mass media and the practical need for the commercialisation of personality rights have all contributed to the development of the commercialisation of personality rights.Although China recognises to a certain extent that personality rights have economic value and has made certain achievements in the protection of civil law in the commercialisation of personality rights,there are still problems such as the narrow scope of subjects and objects that can be commercialised,the fact that inheritance and transfer of rights are not allowed,and the fact that the remedy system is not yet perfect.The scope of the subjects of the commodifiable personality rights,in addition to the natural persons,legal persons and other organisations explicitly provided for in the Civil Code,the deceased shall also be included in the scope of the protected subjects.The scope of the objects of the commodifiable personality rights,in addition to the names,portraits and names explicitly provided for in the Civil Code,the rights and interests in personal information and the right to privacy may also be included as objects.The Civil Code only allows for the transfer of rights in the form of a licence to use a personality mark,but the licence does not fully meet the needs of reality and a system for the transfer of the right to a merchantable personality needs to be provided for.The economic value of the deceased’s personality interests cannot be ignored,and inheritance of property interests in the deceased’s personality should be allowed.The criteria for determining infringement in cases of commercialisation of personality rights are different from those for other cases of infringement of personality rights,and have their own special characteristics,one being that the infringed personality mark is identifiable,and the other being that there is loss in property interests.It should also unify the standards of compensation in the judicial practice of the commodification of personality rights and improve the ways of relief.In addition,reasonable restrictions should be imposed on the commercialisation of personality rights to prevent abuse of rights,with a view to better improving the civil law protection system for the commercialisation of personality rights.