Iowa

NO

RELATED LAWS:

Criminal Harassment/Invasion of Privacy for Explicit Images: In 2017, Iowa passed a criminal law prohibiting the dissemination, distribution, publishing or posting of an image of a “person in a state of full or partial nudity or engaged in a sex act” without consent.  The law is now part of the Iowa Code Section 708.7.

LIKELY YES 

No court to date has considered an independent right of publicity. Several federal district courts, however, has predicted that Iowa would recognize an independent right of publicity. 

Estate of Bisignano by and through Huntsman v. Exile Brewing Company, LLC, 694 F.Supp.3d 1088 (S.D. Iowa 2023)

Sharp-Richardson v. Boyds Collection, Ltd., 1999 WL 33656875 (N.D. Iowa 1999)

YES

Although the state has not decided a case under the appropriation branch of its privacy law, it has recognized both a right to privacy and the appropriation branch of that tort.  

Bremmer v. Journal-Tribune Pub. Co., 247 Iowa 817 (1956)

Winegard v. Larsen 260 N.W.2d 816 (Iowa 1977)

UNCLEAR 

The state recognizes that the right to privacy of patients’ medical records survives death, but has not addressed post-mortem rights based on a misappropriation claim.  At least one federal district court has suggested that the state would recognize a postmortem right of publicity without a durational limit.

State v. Thompson 836 N.W.2d 470, 490 (Iowa, 2013).

Estate of Bisignano by and through Huntsman v. Exile Brewing Company, LLC, 694 F.Supp.3d 1088 (S.D. Iowa 2023)

Does the law require the plaintiff or identity-holder to be a celebrity or have a commercially valuable identity?

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Does the law protect persona?

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Is Liability Limited to Uses on Commercial Advertising or Commercial Speech?

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Other Limits

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Although no court has analyzed the First Amendment in the context of the misappropriation tort under Iowa law, Iowa sits in the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. In C.B.C. Distribution & Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P., 505 F.3d 818 (8^th Cir. 2007), the Eight Circuit applied a balancing test and held that the use of players’ names and statistics by a fantasy sports league was protected by the First Amendment against a claim under Missouri’s right of publicity.

In 2017, a bill to prohibit use of drones to capture images of others on private property without permission was introduced, and remains under consideration as of February 2018.