TOTAL LICENSING
Endorser Product/ Fees Term
Company
Anna Multiway Sports Bra/ $8.0M 4 years
Kournikova Shock Absorber &
XSN Sports/Microsoft
Lebron Nike $9.0M 3 years
Sprite $10.0M 4 years
David Adidas $12.5M 4 years
Beckham
Cal Ripken Jr Chevy Trucks, Fram Oil $9.0M 1 year
filters and Starter apparel
Yao Ming United $3.0M 3 years
Telecommunications Corp
Kobe Bryant Nike $40.0M 5 years
Source: Consor research
names as brand identification. registrations. Celebrity brands are have provided celebrity endorsements
The United States permits registration built typically with tireless hard work, on a broad range of products; from
of individual names. However, if they and no number of trademark registra- Chevrolet trucks to multi-way sports
are living, written permission must be tions are any substitute for effective bras.
obtained from the owner of the name marketing over decades such as that The minimum fee identified is $1 mil-
in order to register as a trademark. done by Polo/Ralph Lauren. On the lion and the maximum was $40 million.
Registration may be tricky for non-tra- other hand, without that legal protec- These examples illustrate the range of
ditional products and certain require- tion these brands can and would be endorsement fees available, depend-
ments must be met. For example, it is vulnerable. It is no accident that the ing on the strength of the celebrities’
necessary that the mark be used in a Rolling Stones have become and brand. All of these pail in compari-
true trademark sense. Simply having a continue to be a famous celebrity son, however, to Tiger Woods who
picture of a celebrity on a t-shirt may brand name—from the beginning they makes a reported $120 + million per
not be trademark use, limiting protec- have employed a thoughtful combina- year on endorsements from a handful
tion to rights of publicity statutes. tion of legal protection and effective of companies.
Outside the United States, the rights promotion and marketing of the Roll- The final lesson is celebrity brands are
of publicity become spottier and often ing Stones brand. The one without the not only here to stay, but are growing
one finds no protection at all. other leads to meaningless protection. in importance.
The United Kingdom does not have The latter without the former leads to One has only to look at growth sta-
a right of publicity and only recently the dangerous possibility of infringe- tistics in the trademark licensing in-
has it begun to consider such issues. ment and misuse. dustry to see this is true. By reviewing
Because the right of publicity may not Celebrity branding, in the growth of the licensing revenue numbers over
exist and/or may be weak, trademark individuals as brands, manifest itself the last decade (see The Licensing Letter,
registration becomes vital as a way of along in another dimension—en- EPM Communications); one can quickly
protecting brand identity. Most coun- dorsements. Particularly amongst see one of the largest growth areas in
tries do permit registration of individ- sports celebrities, the growth in size, trademark licensing has been and con-
uals as brands, and celebrity branding type, and breath product endorse- tinues to be celebrity licensing – both
continues to grow in many countries. ments continues to expand. those that are living and those that
However, celebrity branding is more From our research of market trans- have passed on.
than a discussion of an individual’s actions we identified endorsement As one of the pioneers in postmor-
rights of publicity, or the success or fees paid to a variety of sport related tem celebrity rights licensing, once
range of protection gained for an in- celebrities. The chart above show ex- said, “I have the ideal clients. They can
dividual through various trademark amples of six different celebrities who no longer get into trouble”.
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