Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-2

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Deceased individual: includes individuals who died before the enactment of this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1
  • Deceased personality: includes personalities who died before the enactment of this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1
  • Individual: means a natural person, living or dead. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1
  • Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Likeness: means an image, photograph, painting, sketching, model, diagram, or other recognizable representation of an individual's face or body, and includes, in the case of a personality, a characteristic. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1
  • Name: means the actual or assumed name, or nickname, of a living or deceased individual that is intended to identify that individual. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1
  • Person: means any natural person, firm, association, partnership, corporation, company, syndicate, receiver, common law trust, conservator, statutory trust, or any other entity by whatever name known or however organized, formed, or created, and includes nonprofit corporations, associations, educational and religious institutions, political parties, and community, civic, or other organizations. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Personality: means any individual whose name, voice, signature, likeness, or other attribute of their personality has commercial value, whether or not that individual uses the individual's name, voice, signature, likeness, or other attribute of their personality on or in products, merchandise, goods, or for purposes of marketing, advertising, selling, or soliciting the purchase of products, merchandise, goods, or services. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1
  • Signature: means a handwritten or otherwise legally binding form of an individual's name, written or authorized by that individual, that distinguishes the individual from all other individuals. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-1

Every individual or personality has a property right in the use of the individual’s or personality’s name, voice, signature, and likeness. The right shall be deemed to have existed before the enactment of this chapter, including at and after the time of death of any deceased individual or deceased personality, and shall continue to exist for a fixed period of time after death, as prescribed in § 482P-4. This right shall be freely transferable, assignable, and licensable, in whole or in part, by any otherwise permissible form of inter vivos or testamentary transfer, including without limitation a will or other testamentary instrument, trust, contract, community property agreement, or cotenancy with survivorship provisions or payable-on-death provisions, whether the will or other testamentary instrument, trust, contract, community property agreement, or cotenancy document is entered into or executed by the deceased individual or deceased personality or by any subsequent owner of the deceased individual’s or deceased personality’s rights as recognized by this chapter; or, if none is applicable, then the owner of the rights shall be determined under the laws of intestate succession applicable to interests in intangible personal property. The right exists regardless of whether it was commercially exploited by the individual or the personality during the individual’s or the personality’s lifetime. The right does not expire upon the death of the individual or personality, regardless of whether the law of the domicile, residence, or citizenship of the individual or personality at the time of death or otherwise recognizes a similar or identical property right. This chapter is intended to apply to all individuals and personalities, living and deceased, including those who died before the enactment of this chapter, regardless of place of domicile or place of domicile at time of death. In the case of a deceased individual or deceased personality, the rights recognized under this chapter shall be deemed to exist at the time of death of any deceased individual or deceased personality or subsequent successor of their rights for the purpose of determining the person or persons entitled to these property rights as provided for in section 482P-3.

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