The Quarterly Journal of Judicial Law Views

The Quarterly Journal of Judicial Law Views

Comparative study of Commercial exploitation of athletes' reputation In the legal systems of the United States, uk and Iran

Author
abbas mirshekari
tehran
Abstract
Athletes are among the community reference groups that, according to their followers, their behavior patterns have an impact on the behavior of other members of the community. The same scope of influence encourages business firm to use them in their commercial ads. Certainly, this will not be a problem if the athlete is satisfied with the prior consent, but the main issue is where the business firm uses the athlete's identity tags in its advert without prior consent. To find the answer to this question, the issue was examined in two US and UK legal systems. In the UK legal system, with concern for the possibility of violating the freedom of expression and, of course, with the inestimation of the contribution of athletes to gaining reputation, A special institution to support athletes not identified but gradually the courts tried to protect the group Against the commercial use of their reputation with the up-to-date interpretation of passing off. But in the US legal system, supporting the athlete has a greater precedent in judicial proceedings. Legal literature has also focused on this topic. In this legal system, by resorting to an institution known as the publicity right, and relying on the institution of Unjust enrichment, efforts are made to uphold the rights of the athlete. Thus, a person who uses an athlete's identity in order to make a profit must compensate the athlete for the amount of benefit he or she has earned. In our law, the weakness of the legal system in Attention to the above problem is clear. However, it seems that with using the Code of Civil Liability and the Code on the dissemination and free access to information, as well as institution of unjust enrichment, the athlete's rights can be protected.
Keywords
Reputation
Athletes
Damage
Name
Unjust enrichment
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