Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at feedback@livemint.com.
From Bollywood star Salman Khan to cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, and from Nutella to Taj Hotels, 2025 saw celebrities and brands alike rush to court to protect their identity from digital misuse. In 2026, that courtroom scramble is expected to make way for deliberate, proactive action.
Intellectual property lawyers and industry experts say the coming year will mark a shift from reactive litigation to structured, commercially driven strategies, as brands and public figures rethink how identity, goodwill and reputation are owned, licensed and enforced. The cost of unchecked misuse, they say, is now simply too high.
“In 2026, proactive brand protection is likely to manifest through continuous domain and marketplace monitoring, quicker platform-level takedowns, and a stronger emphasis on trade dress,” said Sanchi Sehgal, senior associate for business and legal affairs at content management firm Tulsea. This approach, she said, reflects the reality that brand harm today is often instantaneous, making prevention far more effective than post-facto correction.
Beyond courtroom
One of the clearest shifts expected in 2026 is the evolution of personality rights from ad-hoc court claims into structured commercial assets. What was largely celebrity-driven litigation in 2025 is expected to broaden to digital creators, athletes, influencers, podcasters and other high-visibility individuals whose identities carry commercial value.
In 2025, the queue of Indian celebrities seeking legal protection for their identity grew long and increasingly diverse, extending beyond Bollywood A-listers to southern film stars, playback singers and digital creators. Film personalities such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Salman Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Karan Johar moved courts to restrain unauthorized use of their name, image and likeness. Playback singers Kumar Sanu and Asha Bhosle, along with southern stars such as Chiranjeevi and Junior NTR, also sought relief. The trend expanded to the creator economy, with influencers and podcasters like Raj Shamani approaching courts to protect their online identity.
“In 2026, personality rights will be actively monetised through licensing, virtual avatars, controlled endorsements and content collaborations,” said Amit K. Panigrahi, partner at Kochhar & Co. “They are no longer just a defensive right but a structured commercial asset.”
Lawyers say monetization will increasingly take layered forms, with personality rights licensed across platforms, territories and timelines, including virtual environments, gaming integrations and synthetic voice or likeness use. Deals are expected to rely more on fixed licence fees, royalties, milestone payouts or renewal-based consent, rather than one-off endorsement fees.
From a deal-making perspective, brands are becoming more rights-conscious, Sehgal said. Endorsements are no longer confined to traditional media or fixed timelines, intersecting instead with archival use and evolving digital formats. As a result, personality rights are being factored into negotiations much earlier, often as a pricing and risk variable rather than a boilerplate clause.
However, lawyers caution against overreach. “Personality rights are evolving into a structured commercial strategy, but 2026 will test how far this can go without eroding credibility,” said Ankit Sahni, partner at Ajay Sahni & Associates. Clearer contractual frameworks and tighter usage boundaries, he said, will be critical to ensure monetization does not come at the cost of authenticity or long-term brand value.
Sudarshan Singh Shekhawat, founder of Shekhawat Law, noted that many advertisements already employ celebrities “in character”, combining copyright and personality rights. “It is not possible to go to court for every meme or reference. Personalities need to be ring-fenced using multiple IP tools, including trademarks and copyright, which requires a structured IP strategy and carefully negotiated contracts,” he said.
Preventive tool
Another major trend heading into 2026 is the growing use of well-known trademark status as a preventive enforcement tool. Under trademark law, a well-known mark enjoys protection beyond its registered classes, allowing faster action against digital misuse and impersonation.
Brands such as JioStar, Sony, Zee Entertainment, Gameskraft and Baazi Group have already secured dynamic injunctions against rogue websites, enabling courts to block mirror domains without repeated filings.
“Well-known trademarks have shifted from symbolic recognition to practical enforcement tools,” said Swati Sharma, partner and head of intellectual property at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Such recognition, she said, works alongside dynamic injunctions, domain blocking and customs enforcement to prevent misuse before damage escalates.
“Businesses increasingly seek well-known trademark status and for good reason,” Sharma said. “Indian courts are responding positively where brands demonstrate genuine market prominence through evidence.”
Lawyers expect more brands and celebrity-led ventures to pursue such recognition earlier in 2026, not only for enforcement but also to signal legitimacy and control in an increasingly fragmented digital environment.
Digital abuse
The urgency around IP protection is being fuelled by the scale of digital abuse. Deepfake fraud has emerged as one of India’s most serious cyber threats, with projected losses estimated at ₹70,000 crore in 2025, according to Pi-Labs’ Digital Deception Epidemic report. The ministry of home affairs told Parliament that more than 65 lakh cybercrime incidents were reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal between 2021 and June 2025. Industry data also points to a sharp rise in scam websites impersonating legitimate businesses.
The Delhi High Court’s IP Division, regarded as India’s leading IP forum, saw 58 rogue-website cases in 2024, a 75% increase from the previous year, Mint had reported earlier.
At the policy level, the government is beginning to engage more deeply with these risks. A recent working paper by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade on generative AI and copyright proposes a hybrid licensing framework for training data, signalling that misuse of identity and creative works will be a central regulatory issue going forward.
“The most significant IP risks in 2026 will arise from digital impersonation and large-scale online misuse,” Sahni said. “Those who invest early in preparedness and proactive enforcement will have a clear advantage.”
Taken together, practitioners say 2026 will mark a structural shift. Intellectual property is no longer a courtroom-only tool. It is becoming central to brand valuation, identity management and long-term commercial planning.