The Japanese Supreme Court has decided a computer game case: Defendant created a computer game for the Sony Playstation that simulated horse racing. In that game they used the name of a racing horse owned by plaintiff, without asking for a license. A short report on the case (in Japanese) is here (link found at Trembling Leaf).
Plaintiff asked for damages, invoking the right of publicity for his horse. He lost. A horse is not a person, but an object. And there is no publicity right for objects, only for persons.
Horse owners might want to consider to register a trademark for the name of a successful horse to protect the potential income from the fame of such a name in the future.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at February 14, 2004 10:00 AM | TrackBack