Michigan Law Review Volume 117 Issue 2 2018 Intellectual Property in Experience Madhavi Sunder Georgetown University Law Center Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Commercial Law Commons, Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, and the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Madhavi Sunder, Intellectual Property in Experience, 117 MICH. L. REV. 197 (2018). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol117/iss2/2 https://doi.org/10.36644/mlr.117.2.intellectual This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. _MIC201.doc (Do Not Delete) 11/2/2018 11:26 AM INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN EXPERIENCE Madhavi Sunder* In today’s economy, consumers demand experiences. From Star Wars to Har- ry Potter, fans do not just want to watch or read about their favorite charac- ters—they want to be them. They don the robes of Gryffindor, flick their wands, and drink the butterbeer. The owners of fantasy properties under- stand this, expanding their offerings from light sabers to the Galaxy’s Edge®, the new Disney Star Wars immersive theme park opening in 2019. Since Star Wars, Congress and the courts have abetted what is now a $262 billion-a-year industry in merchandising, fashioning “merchandising rights” appurtenant to copyrights and trademarks that give fantasy owners exclusive rights to supply our fantasy worlds with everything from goods to a good time.