Character merchandising is big business and any case concerning its legal protection is bound to arouse considerable interest. This is certainly true of the recent Court of Appeal decision in Elvis Presley Trade Marks [1999] R.P.C. 567, where the character concerned was “the King” himself. Earlier, in the “Ninja Turtles” passing-off case, Mirage Studios v. Counterfeat Clothing Co. Ltd. [1991] F.S.R. 145, the High Court had apparently endorsed the view that the public's awareness of merchandising practices means that it will assume that products carrying the likeness or name of a celebrity (real or fictional) will come from one “genuine” source. This decision, together with the provisions of the 1994 Trade Marks Act which swept away previous anti-trafficking provisions and liberalised the licensing regime, seemed, to many, to herald a new dawn for the protection of character merchandising, However, the Elvis Presley decision suggests that character merchandising in the UK will remain relatively unprotected compared to other jurisdictions.