Personal image: introduction to legal discourse
Authors: Karbovska Karolina 
Published: December 2021

Problem setting. Intensive development of public relations, digitalization and commercialization of new spheres of life, growing popularity of the media sphere necessitates civil protection not only the privacy of individuals who are popular and recognizable, but also their right to publicity, which is directly related to lawful use of intangible benefits that belong to a person and shape his image.

Analysis of recent researches and publications. Among the world's most prominent researchers of image as a social phenomenon are R. Burns, I. Hoffman, W. James, J. Rotter, L. Holl, and others. Domestic studies of image are represented by the works of Atamanskaya K.I., Barny N.V., Krynychna I.P., Lavrentiya A.S., Palekha Y.I., Panteleychuk I.V., Fedoriva T.V., Shcherbak N. V. and other representatives of various social sciences.

The purpose of the article is to outline general scientific approaches to defining the concept of image, distinguishing it from related concepts and identifying promising areas of civil law research of image.

Article’s main body. The concept of image is more often used in the information space, which leads to an increase in public demand for the legal definition of this concept and the settlement of issues related to the protection of the image of both individuals and legal entities.

Image is the object of study of various branches of social science and studied by them in a variety of manifestations and aspects. Based on the analysis of a number of approaches to image definition by representatives of various sciences, it can be concluded that image considered as: (a) a communication tool that is a manipulative technology to influence public consciousness; (b) marketing tool to promote goods, works and services; (c) the external and psychological image of the public person through which society identifies him as an individual.

Considering the image of an individual from the standpoint of a systematic approach, in particular a multilevel set of different components - personal intangible assets, we believe that reputation is an element of the image of an individual and should be considered as its structural component.

From the standpoint of interdisciplinary research, the concepts of image and personal brand should be considered as synonymous, from a legal point of view, despite their similarity, they are formed by different objects of civil rights, although within the protection of the individual's right to protection and personal brand.

Conclusions and prospects for the development. In view of the above, it can be concluded that the image of an individual is a complex, interdisciplinary concept. It is a holistic, stable image of a particular person that exists in society, and is characterized by the indivisibility of its external and internal characteristics, the corresponding personal, professional and social qualities. The constituent legal elements of the image are (a) personal intangible assets: the right to a name, the right to an image, the right to individuality, personal reputation; (b) objects of intellectual property rights: means of personalization: personal brand, trademark, trade name and others.