Most likeness templates in circulation were drafted for a world where reproducing a person was expensive. Now that a voice or face can be convincingly generated from a small sample, the license language has to do work the economics used to do.
The older template problem
A grant of rights to use “name, image and likeness in connection with the campaign” was tolerable when use meant photography from an approved shoot. The same words, read literally today, may authorize outputs the talent never performed. Definitions drafted before generation was possible do not become safe because everyone remembers what was intended.
Define the licensed identity, not just the assets
Separate the delivered assets (approved photographs, recorded audio) from the underlying identity (face, voice, mannerisms, signature phrases). A license can grant broad use of assets while granting narrow, enumerated use of identity. The distinction should appear in the grant clause, not only in the recitals.
Say something about training and generation
Silence is the worst position. The agreement should state whether delivered material may be used to train models, whether outputs resembling the talent may be generated at all, and if so, under what approval procedure. A simple prohibition with a carve-out for specified uses is easier to administer than a general permission with exceptions.
Approvals that survive scale
Per-asset approval breaks down when a counterparty can produce hundreds of variants. Approval mechanics should attach to defined templates, sample sets or generation parameters, with audit rights over what was actually published.
Term, survival and takedown
Identity rights should revert cleanly. The agreement should state what happens to trained systems and generated inventory at termination, who bears takedown obligations, and on what timeline. “Existing materials may continue in use” needs a definition of existing that generation cannot inflate.
Related practices
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