The Three IP Buckets Every Creator Needs to Know

Quick answer: Creators have three distinct types of intellectual property protection available to them, and they cover different things: right of publicity (control over your name, image, likeness, and mannerisms), copyright (protection for original works you've actually created, like a podcast episode or video), and trademark (protection for a name, catchphrase, or slogan used commercially). Most creators only think about one of the three. Copyright — and leave the other two unmanaged.

Why "intellectual property" isn't one thing

When creators hear "protect your IP," it tends to get treated as a single, vague category — something a lawyer handles, somewhere, eventually. In practice, IP attorney Matt Savare, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler and co-author of the IAB's AI Intellectual Property and Transaction Playbook, breaks it into three distinct legal buckets during a recent panel discussion on creator identity and AI:

I think there's really three buckets of intellectual property that we should talk about. One... is right of publicity, persona, image rights. That's the ability of individuals, whether you're a celebrity or not, to protect any indicia of your persona. So that could be your name, your image, your likeness, your signature, mannerisms... Then another bucket are copyrights... And then you have a third bucket... trademarking their personas.

Each bucket protects something different, gets triggered by a different kind of infringement, and requires a different kind of action to defend. Knowing which bucket applies to a given problem is the difference between sending the right cease-and-desist letter and wasting time on the wrong legal theory.

Bucket one: right of publicity (persona and image rights)

Right of publicity — sometimes called persona rights or image rights — is the legal ability to control commercial use of anything that identifies you: your name, your face, your voice, your signature, your catchphrases, your general mannerisms. Critically, Savare notes this protection isn't reserved for celebrities. "Whether you're a celebrity or not," any creator with a recognizable persona has some version of this right, though the strength and scope vary significantly by state.

This is the bucket that governs AI voice clones and deepfake likenesses. If someone generates an AI version of your voice reading an ad you never approved, that's a right-of-publicity issue — not a copyright one, because the AI system technically created new audio rather than copying an existing recording.

Bucket two: copyright (your actual work)

Copyright protects original works of authorship — the podcast episode itself, the YouTube video, the newsletter, the photograph. This is the bucket most creators already understand, because it's the one platforms reference constantly (takedown notices, DMCA claims, "this video contains copyrighted content").

The distinction that trips people up: copyright protects the work, not the person. If someone re-uploads your video without permission, that's copyright infringement. If someone uses an AI model to generate a new video that sounds and looks like you but reproduces none of your actual footage, that's not a copyright issue at all — it lands back in bucket one, right of publicity.

Bucket three: trademark (your name as a brand)

Trademark protects a name, logo, catchphrase, or slogan when it's being used commercially to identify a source of goods or services — essentially, when your name or a phrase associated with you functions as a brand. Savare points to a growing trend of public figures formalizing this protection directly:

"We're seeing a lot of celebrities do this now where they're actually trademarking their personas. So you're seeing Taylor Swift and Matthew McConaughey are trademarking their name, their catchphrases, certain slogans they may have."

For a creator, this becomes relevant once a name, tagline, or recurring bit becomes valuable enough that someone else might want to use it — on merchandise, in a competing product name, or as a marketing hook. Trademark registration turns something that already feels like "yours" into something that's legally and provably yours.

A real-world example of the buckets overlapping

Savare described a recent client conversation involving Bounce Kids, an early-stage gaming platform for children built around exercise. The company licenses athletes', trainers', and creators' name, image, likeness, and motion-captured movement to build them into interactive fitness games — meaning a user could do bodyweight exercises alongside an AI-generated, motion-captured version of a real creator or athlete, without that person needing to be present or performing the movements themselves.

A deal like that typically touches all three buckets at once: right of publicity (the license to use the person's name, image, and likeness), copyright (any original choreography, scripts, or footage used in the capture process), and potentially trademark (if the creator's name or brand is used in marketing the game). Understanding which bucket covers which piece of the deal is exactly what makes a licensing agreement negotiable rather than just something to sign.

Key takeaways

• Right of publicity protects your name, face, voice, and mannerisms — the bucket most relevant to AI clones and deepfakes.

• Copyright protects your actual created works, not your persona — re-uploading your video is copyright infringement; an AI-generated lookalike video is not.

• Trademark protects your name or catchphrases when used commercially as a brand identifier, and is increasingly used proactively by public figures.

• A single licensing deal — like an AI-generated avatar or a branded game character — can touch all three buckets simultaneously.

FAQ

What's the difference between right of publicity and copyright?

Right of publicity protects a person's identity (name, voice, likeness, mannerisms) from unauthorized commercial use. Copyright protects specific original works a person has created. An AI voice clone implicates right of publicity; a stolen video re-upload implicates copyright.

Do non-celebrities have right of publicity protection?

Yes. Right of publicity applies to private individuals as well as celebrities, though the specific scope and strength of the protection varies by state law.

Should creators trademark their name?

It depends on how commercially the name or catchphrase is being used. If a name, slogan, or recurring phrase is central to merchandise, sponsorships, or a broader brand, trademark registration is worth evaluating — it provides stronger, more provable protection than relying on common-law rights alone.

Source: Adapted from commentary by Matt Savare, partner at Lowenstein Sandler and co-author of the IAB AI Intellectual Property and Transaction Playbook, in the Royall.ai "Who Owns You" webinar series, Episode 3: "AI Identity and the Future of Creator Endorsements."