Fame: Ownership Implications of Intellectual Property and Agency Law

In the pre-internet era, it was difficult to reach a wide audience without the help of a professional organization, so as a practical matter control typically rested with distributors rather than with talent. Now that direct public distribution is easy and inexpensive, distributors’ practical control has greatly diminished, and it is therefore important to consider the legal principles that govern the control of the use of “fame.” This Article defines fame as a bundle of intellectual property rights and analyzes the ownership of those rights under intellectual property and agency theories.