In a default judgment, actor Clint Eastwood has been awarded $6.1 million from a company that falsely claimed Eastwood had endorsed its CBD products. The lawsuit claimed that the defendants created fake news articles and manipulated search results to make it appear that Eastwood had endorsed their products. This case points up the intriguing valuation issue known as the “right of publicity.” This is a form of intellectual property that covers an individual’s likeness, including his or her name, image, signature, voice, and so on. As the Eastwood case shows, there could be a great deal of value when it comes to a celebrity.

How to do it: A veritable road map on how to value the right of publicity can be found in the recent case of the Michael Jackson estate. Experts for the estate presented a fascinating look at how the name-likeness valuation was done during a BVR webinar. The webinar panel consisted of Jay E. Fishman (Financial Research Associates) and celebrity licensing expert Mark Roesler (CMG Worldwide), whom the estate engaged to value the name and likeness. Also on the panel was music industry financial advisor David Dunn (Shot Tower Capital), who advised on other valuation issues.