(a) A right recognized by this chapter shall be freely transferable, assignable, and licensable, in whole or in part, by contract or inter vivos transfer. This right shall not expire upon the death of the individual or personality, but shall be owned and enforceable by the following successors, heirs, or other transferees of living or deceased individuals or personalities:

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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 482P-3

  • 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.
  • 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
(1) Except where a right recognized by this chapter was transferred or assigned before the deceased personality‘s death by means of any contract or trust instrument, a right recognized by this section shall be owned by the person entitled to the right under the deceased individual‘s or personality’s last will and testament or, if none, then by the beneficiaries or heirs under the laws of intestate succession applicable to interests in intangible personal property generally of the individual’s or personality’s domicile, regardless of whether the law of the domicile of the deceased individual or personality, at the time of death, or thereafter, recognizes a similar or identical property right; or
(2) If the deceased individual or personality transferred or assigned any interest in a right recognized by this chapter during the individual’s or personality’s life by means of any contract or trust instrument, then the interest so transferred or assigned shall be held as follows:

(A) If the transferred or assigned interest was held in trust, in accordance with the terms of the trust;
(B) If the transferred or assigned interest is subject to a cotenancy with any survivorship provisions or payable-on-death provisions, in accordance with those provisions;
(C) If the transferred or assigned interest is subject to any contract, including without limitation an exclusive license, assignment, or a community property agreement, in accordance with the terms of the applicable contract or contracts; or
(D) If the interest has been transferred or assigned to a third person in a form that is not addressed in this section, by the individual or personality, or the successor, heir, or other valid transferee of the living or deceased individual or personality, then the interest may be transferred, assigned, or licensed by that third person, in whole or in part, by any otherwise permissible form of inter vivos or testamentary transfer or, if none is applicable, under the laws of intestate succession applicable to interests in intangible personal property of the third person’s domicile, regardless of whether the law of the domicile of the deceased third party, at the time of death, or thereafter, recognizes a similar or identical property right.
(b) A property right exists whether or not those rights were commercially exploited by or under the authority of the individual or the personality, or the individual’s or personality’s successors or transferees, during the individual’s or the personality’s lifetime.

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