AN ACT Relating to updating personality rights protections;
SB 6041 updates Washington’s personality rights law, which protects the commercial use of a person’s name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness. The bill expands and clarifies those rights by defining key terms more broadly, expressly covering living and deceased individuals and personalities, and stating that the right is a transferable property interest that can be assigned, licensed, inherited, or controlled through wills, trusts, contracts, community property agreements, and intestate succession rules. It also makes clear that the right does not expire at death and applies regardless of domicile, citizenship, or whether the person’s home state recognizes a similar right.
The bill also revises infringement rules and remedies. It prohibits unauthorized commercial use in advertising, merchandise, fundraising, and public dissemination of voice or likeness, while preserving exemptions for news, commentary, criticism, satire, parody, fine art, certain literary and artistic works, and other specified uses. It authorizes injunctions, statutory and actual damages, disgorgement of profits, impoundment and destruction of infringing materials, and attorney’s fees for the prevailing party. The measure further states that infringement can occur whether or not the use is for profit and includes protections against class actions by the individuals whose rights are used.
SB 6041 would significantly revise chapter 63.60 RCW by broadening the scope, duration, and enforceability of Washington’s personality/publicity rights regime. It would strengthen posthumous rights, clarify ownership and succession rules for deceased individuals and personalities, and create a more detailed framework for licensing, transfer, and enforcement. The bill would affect advertisers, publishers, merchandisers, fundraising organizations, media entities, and others who use a person’s identity in commerce, while preserving enumerated First Amendment-style exceptions for newsworthy and expressive uses.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall sentiment appears neutral to supportive in tone, with the bill framed as an update and clarification of existing protections rather than a controversial overhaul. The caption and drafting suggest an effort to modernize Washington’s personality rights law and provide clearer rules for estates, successors, and commercial users. No recorded opposition, amendments, or roll-call votes are included in the materials provided.
The main points of potential contention are the bill’s expanded reach and the breadth of its posthumous rights protections. Businesses, advertisers, media platforms, and other commercial users may be concerned about increased liability, broader definitions of infringement, and the bill’s application to deceased individuals and personalities for up to 50 years after death. On the other side, rights holders, heirs, estates, and licensors would likely favor the stronger property-rights framework and clearer enforcement tools. The bill attempts to balance those interests by preserving exemptions for news, commentary, parody, artistic works, and other protected uses.