Legal experts at Alt Legal’s 2025 I ♡ Trademarks Conference Influencer Marketing Panel have identified a key shift in intellectual property law that has significance for current and aspiring creators and influencers: individual identity has become a marketable commodity.
Held in New York City early this year, the conference brought together over 100 trademark professionals to explore emerging trends, with the monetization of personal brands emerging as the year’s defining topic.
“The framework of the panel was the fact that some individuals can commercialize their identity,” explains Erica Rogers, Intellectual Property Attorney with Ward and Smith, who moderated the session. “Someone’s Name, Image, or Likeness (NIL) has value. You can license your NIL rights and make money off of who you are as an individual because there’s commercial value to your name, nickname, jersey number, or image of you, for example.”
Erica, a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law, has witnessed how social media has transformed brand interactions.
“Companies are finding more opportunities by engaging their individual employees or contractors on an individual basis and showing how individuals interact with their products or services rather than using this big overarching business approach,” she notes. “When people interact with brands, they want to know individual experiences with those brands.”
With a college degree in piano performance, Erica entered law specifically to support creators. “I wanted to be around people who are creating new things and wanting to protect them,” she shares. This passion led her to her current role at Ward and Smith, where she works with clients ranging from individual creators to large corporations.
The Alt Legal-hosted conference, designed primarily for trademark professionals seeking continuing legal education credits, provided a timely forum to discuss creator economy issues.
Hot Topics from the Panel
During the panel, Erica and fellow experts discussed how trademark law is adapting to the creator economy. A notable launching point for conversation was the 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed college athletes to monetize their NIL rights, bringing these issues to mainstream attention.
“A lot of attention has been surrounding NIL rights for collegiate athletes, but it didn’t start then,” Erica clarifies. “This idea that NIL rights exist and that you can license them has been around for a while. It’s just become more centered in the conversation because of what’s happening in universities for athletics in the U.S. right now.”
The panel explored how creators can protect their personal brands through both trademark and copyright law. “Sometimes you can register a trademark or protect a trademark if it’s somebody’s name or their nickname, as long as they’re using it as a brand and not just as their personal name,” Erica explains. “It has to be offered in connection with a product or service as a source identifier for that product or service.”
This shift toward individual branding reflects broader changes Erica has observed in her practice: “What used to be the team name mattered most or the school’s reputation. Now people care more about who the athlete is, the individual, their number, and what they are doing on their social media.”
Legal Blind Spots Revealed in Q&A Session
An illuminating moment at the conference came during the Q&A session following the panel. An audience member raised a question that exposed a legal blind spot in the creator economy.
“There was a really good question that gave us some pause to think about where somebody’s photograph was taken and then suddenly used throughout social media without their permission, even if the original post had their permission,” Erica recalls.
The scenario sparked a complex discussion about rights and control of viral social media activity. As Erica explains: “If the business is the intellectual property owner of the photograph and it’s being used in ways that the individual is not comfortable with, what rights does that individual have versus the business? The individual’s appearance rights are in the photograph. It’s of them.”
The panel also explored the FTC’s endorsement guidelines, contract terms between businesses and creators, and intellectual property disputes between influencers. Erica mentioned a pending case between two influencers arguing over the “sad beige” aesthetic of their pages, highlighting the challenge of applying traditional IP laws to modern content formats.
“How do you fit that into intellectual property laws written before you could even conceive what Instagram is?” Erica asks. “Is it copyright infringement? Is it trademark infringement? How do you fit a square peg into a round hole when it comes to the law?”
Beyond the conference discussion, Erica shared examples from her own practice that echo these concerns. One central blind spot involves management relationships. “If you’re an influencer and you don’t have time to interact with all of these platforms, it might seem like a good idea to work with someone else to do all that for you and split the revenue,” she explains. But this arrangement can lead to serious complications.
“Who’s responsible when things go wrong, and who owns all of that content? That’s not always considered,” she says. “If your name, appearance, and rights are associated with that, even if you can relinquish legal responsibility, your reputation is damaged through some of that activity.”
Essential Strategies for Creator Protection
During the panel, contract terms emerged as a critical area where creators often misstep. As Michelle Miller, one of the panelists with strong experience working with entertainers, emphasized, what’s in writing determines a creator’s rights and obligations.
“Take time to review contracts before you sign them and ensure that things are in writing,” Erica advises. She acknowledges the pressure creators feel to move quickly, but emphasizes the importance of slowing down regarding legal matters.
“This is your identity, this is your name, this is your reputation, this is your family,” she says. “The wrong contract could preclude you. For instance, if you sign something that they want perpetual exclusive rights to use your appearance for a certain product, that’s probably not something you should sign if it’s forever.”
The conference also revealed the intricate web of relationships in each social media interaction. Erica highlights this complexity: “For social media, when you post something, especially if you’re working with a sponsorship or a business, it’s not just you and the business,” she explains.
A single post might involve “you, the business, the social media platform, who appears on your post, who’s commenting on your post, the FTC, the platform itself, your website, maybe where you’re sharing it to.” Understanding these multiple layers of potential intellectual property owners is crucial.
Erica illustrates this with an example: “If I’m posting something in my house and I’m maybe promoting paint like a paint company, and I’m wearing a shirt with a certain logo of another business and maybe in the background, my nephew is running around with a hat on that has a different hardware store, and I have a song playing. It’s a mess.”
Drawing from both the conference discussions and her practice experience, Erica recommends creating a regular schedule for legal review rather than waiting for problems to arise.
“Have an ongoing relationship, ongoing monitoring, and maybe setting yourself a timeline,” she suggests. “Once a quarter, look at all the posts you’ve done, pull up the spreadsheets, and have a routine.”
According to Erica, this proactive approach allows creators to address potential issues before they become serious problems. “If you wait to talk about all this stuff until something bad happens, it will be harder,” Erica warns.
When Creators Should Seek Legal Advice
While the conference provided valuable insights for creators already experiencing legal challenges, it raised an important question not directly addressed in the panel: When should creators first seek legal advice?
While the ideal answer is “as early as possible,” Erica acknowledges the practical realities most creators face. “I respect that the answer to this question often depends on budget,” she says.
She suggests seeking advice “when you get to the point that you realize the opportunities in front of you, and the potential opportunities are so good that you don’t want to mess that up.” At that stage, investing in legal counsel becomes particularly valuable.
Erica notes that established creators often seek help only after encountering problems. “It usually takes a problem to involve counsel,” she observes. “It takes a cease and desist letter, somebody upset with what they’re doing, or a business opportunity where maybe a business presents a contract in front of them. However, involving counsel early on can help anticipate and prepare for these scenarios.”
AI’s Impact on Creator Rights
One of the most forward-looking discussions at the conference centered around artificial intelligence and its implications for intellectual property rights. Though the legal framework is still developing, Erica notes that the subject generated interest among attendees.
“We could talk a whole hour about this,” Erica says about AI’s impact on trademark law and creator rights. She points out that current copyright law doesn’t grant protection to AI-generated content without human involvement.
“The U.S. Copyright Office does not grant copyright protection to materials that are not created by a human,” she explains. “But there are issues there because of the prompts. What about the creativity of asking for what you want to be pushed out? There’s human creation there.”
This creates a situation where creators must consider both protection and infringement concerns. “If you start to use AI to create stuff, are you violating other people’s rights?” Erica asks, highlighting a question that many conference attendees were considering.
The legal expert advises caution about overreliance on AI tools, noting that influencers should maintain control and understand their content’s origins. “If you’re using AI for your brand as an influencer, and you don’t know where it’s coming from or how it was created or who else they’re going to give it to, I mean, that makes me nervous,” she says.
The debate also extends to voice rights, with Erica referencing cases where voice actors’ recordings were used in ways they hadn’t anticipated, raising questions about what aspects of a person’s identity are protectable in an AI context.
Perspectives on Trademark Law and Creator Economy
As the I ♡ Trademarks Conference wrapped up after a day of networking and educational sessions, Erica left with a renewed perspective on the future of trademark law and influencer marketing.
When it comes to the trends that will shape this field in the coming years, Erica identifies several key factors evident throughout the conference discussions: “Obviously AI. At the start of the call, we discussed how people want to engage with individuals. There’s this shift towards personal identity and individualism and the one mattering.”
She also notes that political factors will likely influence how creator rights change: “I think politics will affect social media and influencer engagement and in a way of managing being authentic and being individual and finding your community and relating, but also finding safety and seeing how things are regulated or lack thereof.”
Despite the changes and challenges discussed at the conference, Erica maintains an optimistic outlook. “Intellectual property law is always chasing and catching up and being involved with how things are changing and how technology is changing the world,” she says. “It’s doing what it always has done, which is keeping up, protecting, and reacting to technological changes.”
Perhaps the most impactful takeaway for Erica wasn’t about specific legal strategies but about the power of in-person connection. The conference format itself—bringing professionals together to discuss emerging issues—inspired her to consider new approaches to supporting creators.
“I revitalized an opinion that I’ve been thinking about when it comes to providing legal services to individuals in this space and finding ways to do more group setting discussions,” she explains. “The conference was a fun way to be in a group and be on a panel and discuss these issues.”
Erica sees potential for more community-based education around legal issues in the creator economy: “I almost wonder, after the conference, are there ways that I can help in a group setting? More panels, more lunch-and-learns, more going to spaces where 20 and 50 people show up, and we talk about these issues and how it’s changing?”
As Erica concludes, this aligns with broader trends in the creator economy: “That’s a trend that we can see in the creator economy as a whole. There are a lot more events and a lot of IRL experiences. People want to connect with each other. They thrive. That sense of community, even off social media.”
Cecilia Carloni, Interview Manager at Influence Weekly and writer for NetInfluencer. Coming from beautiful Argentina, Ceci has spent years chatting with big names in the influencer world, making friends and learning insider info along the way. When she’s not deep in interviews or writing, she's enjoying life with her two daughters. Ceci’s stories give a peek behind the curtain of influencer life, sharing the real and interesting tales from her many conversations with movers and shakers in the space.
Legal experts at Alt Legal’s 2025 I ♡ Trademarks Conference Influencer Marketing Panel have identified a key shift in intellectual property law that has significance for current and aspiring creators and influencers: individual identity has become a marketable commodity.
Held in New York City early this year, the conference brought together over 100 trademark professionals to explore emerging trends, with the monetization of personal brands emerging as the year’s defining topic.
“The framework of the panel was the fact that some individuals can commercialize their identity,” explains Erica Rogers, Intellectual Property Attorney with Ward and Smith, who moderated the session. “Someone’s Name, Image, or Likeness (NIL) has value. You can license your NIL rights and make money off of who you are as an individual because there’s commercial value to your name, nickname, jersey number, or image of you, for example.”
Erica, a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law, has witnessed how social media has transformed brand interactions.
“Companies are finding more opportunities by engaging their individual employees or contractors on an individual basis and showing how individuals interact with their products or services rather than using this big overarching business approach,” she notes. “When people interact with brands, they want to know individual experiences with those brands.”
With a college degree in piano performance, Erica entered law specifically to support creators. “I wanted to be around people who are creating new things and wanting to protect them,” she shares. This passion led her to her current role at Ward and Smith, where she works with clients ranging from individual creators to large corporations.
The Alt Legal-hosted conference, designed primarily for trademark professionals seeking continuing legal education credits, provided a timely forum to discuss creator economy issues.
Hot Topics from the Panel
During the panel, Erica and fellow experts discussed how trademark law is adapting to the creator economy. A notable launching point for conversation was the 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed college athletes to monetize their NIL rights, bringing these issues to mainstream attention.
“A lot of attention has been surrounding NIL rights for collegiate athletes, but it didn’t start then,” Erica clarifies. “This idea that NIL rights exist and that you can license them has been around for a while. It’s just become more centered in the conversation because of what’s happening in universities for athletics in the U.S. right now.”
The panel explored how creators can protect their personal brands through both trademark and copyright law. “Sometimes you can register a trademark or protect a trademark if it’s somebody’s name or their nickname, as long as they’re using it as a brand and not just as their personal name,” Erica explains. “It has to be offered in connection with a product or service as a source identifier for that product or service.”
This shift toward individual branding reflects broader changes Erica has observed in her practice: “What used to be the team name mattered most or the school’s reputation. Now people care more about who the athlete is, the individual, their number, and what they are doing on their social media.”
Legal Blind Spots Revealed in Q&A Session
An illuminating moment at the conference came during the Q&A session following the panel. An audience member raised a question that exposed a legal blind spot in the creator economy.
“There was a really good question that gave us some pause to think about where somebody’s photograph was taken and then suddenly used throughout social media without their permission, even if the original post had their permission,” Erica recalls.
The scenario sparked a complex discussion about rights and control of viral social media activity. As Erica explains: “If the business is the intellectual property owner of the photograph and it’s being used in ways that the individual is not comfortable with, what rights does that individual have versus the business? The individual’s appearance rights are in the photograph. It’s of them.”
The panel also explored the FTC’s endorsement guidelines, contract terms between businesses and creators, and intellectual property disputes between influencers. Erica mentioned a pending case between two influencers arguing over the “sad beige” aesthetic of their pages, highlighting the challenge of applying traditional IP laws to modern content formats.
“How do you fit that into intellectual property laws written before you could even conceive what Instagram is?” Erica asks. “Is it copyright infringement? Is it trademark infringement? How do you fit a square peg into a round hole when it comes to the law?”
Beyond the conference discussion, Erica shared examples from her own practice that echo these concerns. One central blind spot involves management relationships. “If you’re an influencer and you don’t have time to interact with all of these platforms, it might seem like a good idea to work with someone else to do all that for you and split the revenue,” she explains. But this arrangement can lead to serious complications.
“Who’s responsible when things go wrong, and who owns all of that content? That’s not always considered,” she says. “If your name, appearance, and rights are associated with that, even if you can relinquish legal responsibility, your reputation is damaged through some of that activity.”
Essential Strategies for Creator Protection
During the panel, contract terms emerged as a critical area where creators often misstep. As Michelle Miller, one of the panelists with strong experience working with entertainers, emphasized, what’s in writing determines a creator’s rights and obligations.
“Take time to review contracts before you sign them and ensure that things are in writing,” Erica advises. She acknowledges the pressure creators feel to move quickly, but emphasizes the importance of slowing down regarding legal matters.
“This is your identity, this is your name, this is your reputation, this is your family,” she says. “The wrong contract could preclude you. For instance, if you sign something that they want perpetual exclusive rights to use your appearance for a certain product, that’s probably not something you should sign if it’s forever.”
The conference also revealed the intricate web of relationships in each social media interaction. Erica highlights this complexity: “For social media, when you post something, especially if you’re working with a sponsorship or a business, it’s not just you and the business,” she explains.
A single post might involve “you, the business, the social media platform, who appears on your post, who’s commenting on your post, the FTC, the platform itself, your website, maybe where you’re sharing it to.” Understanding these multiple layers of potential intellectual property owners is crucial.
Erica illustrates this with an example: “If I’m posting something in my house and I’m maybe promoting paint like a paint company, and I’m wearing a shirt with a certain logo of another business and maybe in the background, my nephew is running around with a hat on that has a different hardware store, and I have a song playing. It’s a mess.”
Drawing from both the conference discussions and her practice experience, Erica recommends creating a regular schedule for legal review rather than waiting for problems to arise.
“Have an ongoing relationship, ongoing monitoring, and maybe setting yourself a timeline,” she suggests. “Once a quarter, look at all the posts you’ve done, pull up the spreadsheets, and have a routine.”
According to Erica, this proactive approach allows creators to address potential issues before they become serious problems. “If you wait to talk about all this stuff until something bad happens, it will be harder,” Erica warns.
When Creators Should Seek Legal Advice
While the conference provided valuable insights for creators already experiencing legal challenges, it raised an important question not directly addressed in the panel: When should creators first seek legal advice?
While the ideal answer is “as early as possible,” Erica acknowledges the practical realities most creators face. “I respect that the answer to this question often depends on budget,” she says.
She suggests seeking advice “when you get to the point that you realize the opportunities in front of you, and the potential opportunities are so good that you don’t want to mess that up.” At that stage, investing in legal counsel becomes particularly valuable.
Erica notes that established creators often seek help only after encountering problems. “It usually takes a problem to involve counsel,” she observes. “It takes a cease and desist letter, somebody upset with what they’re doing, or a business opportunity where maybe a business presents a contract in front of them. However, involving counsel early on can help anticipate and prepare for these scenarios.”
AI’s Impact on Creator Rights
One of the most forward-looking discussions at the conference centered around artificial intelligence and its implications for intellectual property rights. Though the legal framework is still developing, Erica notes that the subject generated interest among attendees.
“We could talk a whole hour about this,” Erica says about AI’s impact on trademark law and creator rights. She points out that current copyright law doesn’t grant protection to AI-generated content without human involvement.
“The U.S. Copyright Office does not grant copyright protection to materials that are not created by a human,” she explains. “But there are issues there because of the prompts. What about the creativity of asking for what you want to be pushed out? There’s human creation there.”
This creates a situation where creators must consider both protection and infringement concerns. “If you start to use AI to create stuff, are you violating other people’s rights?” Erica asks, highlighting a question that many conference attendees were considering.
The legal expert advises caution about overreliance on AI tools, noting that influencers should maintain control and understand their content’s origins. “If you’re using AI for your brand as an influencer, and you don’t know where it’s coming from or how it was created or who else they’re going to give it to, I mean, that makes me nervous,” she says.
The debate also extends to voice rights, with Erica referencing cases where voice actors’ recordings were used in ways they hadn’t anticipated, raising questions about what aspects of a person’s identity are protectable in an AI context.
Perspectives on Trademark Law and Creator Economy
As the I ♡ Trademarks Conference wrapped up after a day of networking and educational sessions, Erica left with a renewed perspective on the future of trademark law and influencer marketing.
When it comes to the trends that will shape this field in the coming years, Erica identifies several key factors evident throughout the conference discussions: “Obviously AI. At the start of the call, we discussed how people want to engage with individuals. There’s this shift towards personal identity and individualism and the one mattering.”
She also notes that political factors will likely influence how creator rights change: “I think politics will affect social media and influencer engagement and in a way of managing being authentic and being individual and finding your community and relating, but also finding safety and seeing how things are regulated or lack thereof.”
Despite the changes and challenges discussed at the conference, Erica maintains an optimistic outlook. “Intellectual property law is always chasing and catching up and being involved with how things are changing and how technology is changing the world,” she says. “It’s doing what it always has done, which is keeping up, protecting, and reacting to technological changes.”
Perhaps the most impactful takeaway for Erica wasn’t about specific legal strategies but about the power of in-person connection. The conference format itself—bringing professionals together to discuss emerging issues—inspired her to consider new approaches to supporting creators.
“I revitalized an opinion that I’ve been thinking about when it comes to providing legal services to individuals in this space and finding ways to do more group setting discussions,” she explains. “The conference was a fun way to be in a group and be on a panel and discuss these issues.”
Erica sees potential for more community-based education around legal issues in the creator economy: “I almost wonder, after the conference, are there ways that I can help in a group setting? More panels, more lunch-and-learns, more going to spaces where 20 and 50 people show up, and we talk about these issues and how it’s changing?”
As Erica concludes, this aligns with broader trends in the creator economy: “That’s a trend that we can see in the creator economy as a whole. There are a lot more events and a lot of IRL experiences. People want to connect with each other. They thrive. That sense of community, even off social media.”