miss A‘s Suzy filed a lawsuit for the alleged use of her name and photos in a certain shopping mall. She claimed that the shopping mall used her publicity rights in an advertisement “Suzy hat” without any permission . But the Seoul Central Court sided on the internet shopping mall and lost her case.
The judge denied that publicity rights were valid, saying, “The rights to use and manage your name and face commercially are included in the rights of your name and the rights to your image. There do not need to be extra ‘publicity rights.’ Also, there isn’t enough to prove that the plaintiff was not able to either sign a contract about the name and image or that the contract was broken just by the fact that the rights to the name and face were invaded, and it cannot be said that there were financial damages.”