Character merchandising does not have much in the way of specific recognition in UK law. In response, the character merchandising industry has sought legal protection via the adaptation of other intellectual property rights and their application to the merchandising field. This chapter discusses how copyright, trade mark law, and various torts combine to confer legal protection on character merchandising.
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31. Character merchandising
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28. Tortious protection of intellectual property rights
This chapter discusses the ways in which the common law, in the form of the law of tort, creates rights of action. It focuses on the torts of passing off and malicious falsehood, although attention is also paid to the ways in which defamation can assist. These rights are supplementary, and complementary, to the statutory formal rights. In particular, trade mark law and passing off closely overlap, although s. 2(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 preserves passing off as a separate cause of action.
