Carey Olsen advises on first image right

Carey Olsen has become the first law firm in the world to file an application for the registration of an image right in Guernsey as the registry launched on Monday, 3 December.

The States of Guernsey passed the ground-breaking image rights legislation last week with applications for registrations granted from today, Monday 3 December 2012. This is the first law of its kind and places Guernsey at the forefront of image rights' development and protection.

Carey Olsen's intellectual property team, led by advocate Elaine Gray (pictured) who is assisted by advocate Wendy Lewis, filed the first application for the registration of an image right for corporate and personal branding specialist, Lesley Everett of Walking TALL International Ltd, this morning.

Carey Olsen of counsel, Elaine Gray, who was extensively involved in reviewing the draft legislation, said: “Guernsey has shown agility and pioneering spirit with the introduction of this legislation.

“It marks a new and separate branch of intellectual property law never seen before. Carey Olsen has been significantly involved in the drafting of the law from the outset. “To be the first law firm in Guernsey to file an application for the registration of an image right is very exciting and the culmination of a lot of hard work. We are currently in discussions with people across a variety of industry sectors and expect to see a good number of registrations being filed in the island over the coming weeks”

The first registrant, Lesley Everett, said: “It is a great honour to be the very first in the world to take advantage of the image rights legislation and register my image.

“Having worked on the project in my role as an international personal brand consultant and speaker, it gives me great pleasure to experience the registration for myself and be part of this unique and much-needed legislation to protect an individual's brand and image. I have no doubt that this will be a highly popular service with celebrities and high-profile personalities throughout the world and I am thrilled to be part of it.”