2025 Summer Associate Riley Smith contributed to this article.
While reality stars often use their on-camera exposure to kick-start their personal brand, sustaining momentum relies heavily on cultivating a strong social media presence to stay connected with their audience. Not unexpectedly, time in the spotlight typically generates an initial surge in visibility—sometimes boosting a reality star’s follower counts by over 50,000%[1]—but this spike is temporary and cannot sustain long-term growth without consistent online engagement.[2] Consequently, a significant portion of reality stars’ brand presence is built and sustained across social media platforms. This includes promotional content like Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, and podcasts, which serve to both engage their audience and highlight their personality. Additionally, many reality stars use these platforms as direct channels for selling their own products.
Despite social media’s integral role in reality star success, it also presents unique challenges when it comes to protecting trademarks and brand identity. The ease of access and transient nature of social media posts, combined with a culture of rapid sharing of online content across users and platforms, can complicate efforts to effectively protect and enforce trademark rights. Nearly every brand encounters some form of trademark infringement at some point, with some brands even forced to rebrand to disassociate from infringing parties.[3] The United States Patent and Trademark Office received nearly 7,000 oppositions to trademark registrations last year, indicating a highly competitive and opportunistic trademark landscape.[4]
All brand owners, including reality TV star brand owners, should be vigilant on social media and craft a strategy that best protects their brand. Given the often elusive nature of social media infringement, it may be impractical to address every single violation. Instead, brand owners might consider prioritizing and focusing their enforcement efforts on the more widespread or damaging instances of infringement. Many social media platforms offer monitoring tools and reporting forms that can help streamline enforcement.[5]
When enforcement strategies and tools fail to prevent an infringement dispute from escalating to litigation, brand owners face the challenge of establishing jurisdiction over the infringing party. Social media transcends geographical boundaries, and the source of infringement might be thousands of miles from the brand’s home. However, if the infringing party is not located in the United States and does not offer products or services to U.S. consumers, a U.S.-based brand owner may lack standing to bring the case before a U.S. court, leaving brand owners at the mercy of the platform’s takedown mechanisms. Registering trademarks internationally can help overcome this issue, but it can be costly.
Brand owners also need to consider the risk of committing trademark infringement on social media. Collaborations and partnerships are often central to the success of reality star brands—you may have spotted Love Island USA stars in Dunkin’ commercials, or seen them promote sponsored products through their curated Amazon storefronts. While these partnerships can be highly profitable, they also come with legal risks.
For example, in 2021, a California court refused to dismiss a trademark infringement claim against an influencer whose blog post, sponsored by the company directly responsible for the alleged infringement, was deemed commercial use. This left the influencer potentially liable, despite her lack of awareness that the product she promoted was infringing. Because cases like this are often settled outside of court, the scope of influencer liability remains uncertain. To mitigate risk, influencers should consider including indemnification clauses in partnership contracts. These provisions can help shield influencers from legal exposure if they unknowingly promote products or services that infringe a third-party trademark.
Although few reality stars manage to turn their fleeting fame into a lasting brand, those who do understand the critical importance of registering and protecting their trademarks, especially on social media.
Thank you for joining us this summer for our three-part series on reality TV and trademark rights—with the new fall TV season starting soon, we are sure to see these issues play out in ”reel” time!
[1] https://www.online-casinos.com/uk/news/society/dating-shows-instagram-growth-analysis.html
[2] https://time.com/6265533/reality-tv-instagram-influencers-less-followers/
[3] https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/resources/landslide/archive/combating-online-infringement/?abajoin=true
[4] United States Patent and Trademark Office, TPAC Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2024 (2024).
[5] https://help.instagram.com/187322279623266/
