A study of the controversial right of persons to control the commercial use of their likeness, name, voice and other identifying indicia. In the first part, the author describes the right of publicity in the US and the portrait right in the Netherlands, and discusse sother relevant theories, such as the right of privacy, copyright law, trademark law, and false advertising law. In the second part, an analysis is made of whether the right of publicity tort can be developed into a new intellectual property right; and the justifications and property nature of this intellectual property right is discussed, as well as its conflict with the principles of free trade and free speech. Finally, the author concludes that it is possible to define a new assignable and descendible intellectual property right in which the principles of free trade and free speech are integrated - the right of persona.