The 19-year-old British darts player and reigning world champion Luke Littler has filed an application with the UK Intellectual Property Office to register rights to the use of his face as a trademark. In doing so, the athlete aims to protect his likeness from unauthorized use, particularly in products created using artificial intelligence that may imitate his image without permission.
According to the application, the registration is intended to give Littler legal control over the commercial use of his image, preventing the emergence of counterfeit products in which his face could be used without consent. This concerns not only traditional merchandise but also a broader range of products, including clothing, video games, sports equipment, food products, and other categories of goods where his brand is already actively used.
Littler, who gained widespread popularity after his rapid breakthrough in professional darts and became one of the youngest world champions, is already one of the most commercially attractive figures in sport. His name and image are actively used in marketing campaigns, and the athlete has previously registered a trademark for his nickname “The Nuke” in the United States.
The decision to register his face as a trademark is linked to the growing risks of using artificial intelligence to create fake images and videos of celebrities. In the sports and entertainment industries, cases are increasingly being recorded where AI is used to generate content featuring the faces of public figures without their consent, creating both reputational and commercial risks.
Similar steps have already been taken by other well-known figures. In various jurisdictions, celebrities and public figures are registering their names, nicknames, and even their likeness as intellectual property assets in order to obtain additional tools of protection against deepfake technologies and the unauthorized commercial exploitation of their image.
Lawyers note that this trend is part of a broader transformation of intellectual property law under the influence of artificial intelligence. Traditional mechanisms of copyright and trademark protection are gradually expanding to cover new objects — from digital avatars to personal identity as a commercial asset.
In Littler’s case, this move has not only legal but also strategic significance: the athlete seeks to proactively protect his brand, which is rapidly growing alongside his sporting achievements and global popularity.
Thus, the Littler case illustrates a new reality in which the boundary between personality, brand, and digital representation is increasingly blurred, and intellectual property protection extends beyond traditional categories.
