The Artful Jurist

If you were watching the Super Bowl on TV this past Sunday, you might have noticed the return of a memorable and hilarious Seinfeld show character known as the Soup Nazi.  The character, best remembered for his surly disposition and barked catch phrase -- "No soup for you!" -- briefly turned up alongside comedian Jerry Seinfeld in an auto commercial that premiered during one of the Super Bowl's breaks.

Even had the ad identifying the character by his well-known moniker, Seinfeld fans could immediately recognize the Soup Nazi from costume, manner, and affect of distinctive foreign dialect.  No question about it:  it was the Soup Nazi.

From a legal standpoint, the question is who actually owns the Soup Nazi character?  The actor who portrays him, Larry Thomas, is the least likely person to own it.  Mr. Thomas didn't write or produce the episode of the show that introduced the character to the world.  So, while an actor possesses the rights to his own likeness, he doesn't necessarily own the rights to the character he plays.  That likely belongs to the people who produced the show.

A lot of people don't realize that, and they believe an actor can  go around portraying a famous character he played simply because he's the one everyone immediately associates with that character.  But that's not always the case.  The late Clayton Moore had the mask stripped off him, so to speak, by the owners of the Lone Ranger character, and, years after the show ceased production, they made Mr. Moore stop the unauthorized marketing of himself as the Lone Ranger character.

So, if you see the Soup Nazi, or Jackie Chiles, or any other TV character pitching a product in a commercial, the chances are pretty darn good that somebody had to give the official okay for that character to be in the ad.  Without that authorization, it's no Soup Nazi for you!