The purpose of this article is to present the views of the polish doctrine and judicature regarding publicity right. This publication focuses particularly on the image of a sportsperson. The author presents the general concept of this right as existing in American doctrine. The article is concentrated on the notion of commercialization of the discussed right, which results in becoming similar to the right of publicity created in the USA. The analysis gives the ground to assuming that the undergoing social and economic processes lead to situation where the need of creating law based on the structure of the right of publicity is significant.