The courts, which have refused to grant relief in such cases, base their opinion on the fact that no prop erty right is involved and that courts of equity will lend their aid only when such a right exists. A year after the decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the New York legislature enacted a statute which makes the unauthorized use of the name or pic ture of any person for purposes of trade a misde meanor. Similar statutes have been enacted in many states. Other states have reached the same result, in the absencc of a statute, by recognizing the right of personal privacy as a distinct legal right, irrespective of any question of property.
Of course, where a person has acquired national renown, his name and likeness become, in a measure, public property, and he cannot ordinarily object to the various uses to which his photograph is placed. The above statements are applicable only to indi viduals who have not acquired this public reputation.
13. Property right in advertisements.—Every ad vertiser has a property right in his advertisement. If these properties are destroyed, the owner has cer tainly a right of action. Aside from what is afforded
by the copyright or trade-mark laws of the Federal government, and the label and trade-mark laws of the several states, the law seems to offer little protection in such cases. Thus it has been held that the mere fact that the plaintiff in an action "has advertised the article extensively and has promoted and increased the demand for the article" does not warrant an in junction. But even this case seems to be simple, for there was no attempt here to confuse the goods of the competitor with those of the earlier advertiser.
In a case decided in a local court, it was held that a laundry company which had started a campaign by publishing the word "stopurkicken" could not recover from an envelop company which published cards bearing the same word, and under it the name of the envelop company.
Since the courts are thus at sea on the question of property rights in advertising, legislatures, it would seem, should be called on to settle the question.