Research On The Civil Law Protection Of The Property Interest Of Portraits

For the past few years,with the development of the economy and the development of the advertising media industry,many businessmen have used the portraits of celebrities to advertise their goods or services,to increase the popularity of goods or services and bring themselves rich economic profits.Meanwhile there are also some unscrupulous merchants make unauthorized use of others' portraits for advertising and cause disputes.The traditional method of civil law is to view the right of portrait as a non-financial right,which only contains spiritual benefits and can not be transfered and inherited.So it can't provide effective protection and relief to the obligees.Based on current situation,it is of great significance to research on the protection of the property interest of the right of portrait and seek reasonable protection.This article consists of the following parts:The first part introduces several modes and the necessity of protecting the property interest of the right of portrait.First of all,the concept of the property interest of the right of portrait is explained.Secondly,it analyzes the necessity of protecting the property interest of the right of portrait from two angles: theoretical basis and practical basis.At last,through comparative analysis of the modes of protecting the property interest of the right of portrait,I put forward that China should adopt the mode of personality right.In the second part,through investigation of the legislative status and the judicial status,it is clear that there is no adequate protection of the property interest of the right of portrait in China.There is no uniform legislation and the regulations are dispersed in different laws and all of them are defective and badly needed to be perfected.Because of the lack of legislation,it is impossible to give guidance for a large number of cases of infringement.In the third part,making a comparative analysis of the binary mode pattern wich combines the public right with the privacy right in the United States and the unified mode of personality right in Germany.Based on the analysis,the unified mode of personality right in Germany is the best choice of the civil law protection of the property interest of the right of portrait in China.In the fourth part,I put forward some measures to perfect the protection of the property interest of the right of portrait based on Chinese actual national conditions.First of all,it is necessary to admit the property interest of the right of portrait in the legislation of personality right and allow to transfer and inherit it.Secondly,it specifies the elements of the tort liability and the liability for damage.Finally,the scope of protection should be restricted to avoid overprotection and influencing the market order.