For years, the idea of a celebrity’s name or image being used commercially seemed relatively straightforward: get permission, sign a contract, and move on. Today, it is anything but simple. Name, image, and likeness, or NIL, has become a major legal issue in sports, entertainment, branding, and intellectual property. For college athletes, NIL rights can mean earning money from endorsements and sponsorships. For celebrities and other public figures, their identity can be one of their most valuable business assets. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently updated its NIL guidance to explain that a person’s name, image, likeness, voice, signature, catchphrase, or other identifying characteristics can potentially function as a trademark when used commercially. In other words, NIL is not simply about getting paid. It is also about controlling how your identity is used, protecting your brand, and preventing others from profiting from it without permission.
The recent legal battle involving baseball icon Mickey Mantle shows why NIL protection can quickly become an intellectual property issue. Mantle’s intellectual property rights holders sued collectibles company Cardsmiths over trading cards allegedly using Mantle’s name, image, likeness, signature, and other protected elements without authorization. The lawsuit involves claims including trademark infringement, right of publicity, and unfair competition. Why does that matter? Because using someone’s identity to sell a product can involve several different areas of law at once. A person’s publicity rights may protect against unauthorized commercial use of their identity, while trademark law can protect names, logos, or other identifiers that function as brands. Licensing agreements can provide another layer of protection. For businesses, the lesson is simple: before putting a famous person’s face, name, signature, or other identifying feature on merchandise or advertising, it is important to understand exactly what rights you are using and whether you have permission to use them.
College sports is also pushing NIL law into new territory. The U.S. Senate recently passed the Protect College Sports Act by a 77 to 22 vote, sending the legislation to the House of Representatives. The proposed legislation would create a federal framework addressing college athlete NIL rights, compensation, agreements, agents, and other aspects of college athletics. A national framework could provide more consistency in an area currently shaped by state laws, court decisions, school policies, and individual contracts. But it also raises important intellectual property questions. Who owns the rights to an athlete’s identity? How should those rights be licensed? What happens when an athlete’s name or image appears in old broadcasts, promotional materials, video games, merchandise, or other commercial content? A recent lawsuit brought by former University of Michigan football players, including Denard Robinson and Braylon Edwards, illustrates how complicated these questions can become. The former athletes are challenging the use and commercial exploitation of their NIL and have taken their dispute to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
NIL protection is also becoming increasingly important because of artificial intelligence. AI tools can now generate convincing images, voices, videos, and other content that mimic real people, sometimes without their knowledge or permission. Recent personality rights litigation involving Indian actors Kangana Ranaut and Vijay Deverakonda illustrates how courts are being asked to address unauthorized digital representations, impersonation, fake endorsements, and AI-generated content. The same concerns can arise in the United States. Imagine an AI-generated advertisement featuring an athlete who never agreed to endorse the product, or a synthetic video making it appear that a celebrity supports a business. These scenarios blur the lines between publicity rights, trademark law, copyright, false endorsement, and emerging AI issues. As technology makes it easier to replicate someone’s identity, protecting a person’s name, image, and likeness may require a broader intellectual property strategy rather than relying on a single legal protection.
Protecting NIL Means Protecting the Value of Your Identity
Name, image, and likeness rights are increasingly becoming part of a broader intellectual property strategy. For athletes, entertainers, influencers, creators, executives, and other public figures, a recognizable identity can carry substantial commercial value. A name, signature, voice, catchphrase, or likeness may be connected to endorsements, licensing agreements, merchandise, sponsorships, trademarks, digital content, and other business opportunities. Protecting that value requires understanding not only who may use an individual’s identity, but also how those rights can be licensed, enforced, and incorporated into long-term brand strategy.
The changing NIL landscape also makes proactive planning increasingly important. New federal and state rules, evolving college athletics policies, artificial intelligence, digital replicas, voice cloning, and new forms of online merchandising are creating uses of personal identity that traditional agreements may not have anticipated. Athletes and public figures should carefully consider how contracts address the scope of permitted use, duration, platforms, sublicensing, AI-generated content, and what happens to those rights after a commercial relationship ends. Businesses using another person’s identity should be equally careful to confirm that their licenses actually cover the intended advertising, merchandise, or digital use.
At Omni Legal Group, our Los Angeles intellectual property attorneys advise athletes, entertainers, influencers, creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses on NIL rights, trademarks, rights of publicity, licensing agreements, endorsements, brand protection, and emerging technology issues. We help clients evaluate how personal identity functions as a commercial asset and develop legal strategies designed to protect that value as markets and technology continue to change.
Your identity may be one of your most valuable intellectual property assets. The more commercially valuable it becomes, the more important it is to control who can use it, how they can use it, and what happens when someone crosses that line.
Contact Omni Legal Group today to schedule a confidential strategy session with a NIL and intellectual property lawyer in Los Angeles. Call 855.433.2226 to speak with our legal team about protecting your name, image, likeness, voice, brand, and other valuable identity rights while building a strategy that supports long-term commercial opportunities.
