Limitations of Autonomy of the Will in Conventions of Exploitation of Personality Rights

Abstract

In the matter of license agreements of personality rights, an analysis of the legislation and case law of more than 20 countries around the world shows a strong tendency to protect persons against themselves, in order to avoid conventions that might dispossess them of their personality rights. Indeed, personality rights are inalienable, since their economic and moral dimensions are strongly intertwined. One of the most important limitations of autonomy of the will lies in the specialty principle. At the very least, this means that personality rights license agreements are interpreted in a restrictive manner. However, some countries have a much more demanding way to see the specialty principle, by requiring the convention to be very narrowly delimited in its scope, in order to be valid. Therefore, the nature of the licensed data, the purpose of the license, the mediums, the duration, and the geographical scope must be narrowly and precisely defined within the agreement. Another limitation of autonomy of the will lies in the need to give the licensor financial compensation. Although the clauses concerning royalties have only rarely been exposed to judicial scrutiny, it seems that, at least in some countries, a minimum financial compensation should be paid for the rights that have been licensed. Nevertheless, this royalty should not necessarily be proportional to the profits generated.