Something about the man’s familiar countenance enchanted product makers from around the world, who chose his stock image out of millions to feature on their packaging.
Whatever the legalities, many companies have been using it for years, as BuzzFeed noted Tuesday in a roundup of personal care and household products from around the world bearing his image.
Though he has had other projects in film and on television, including “The Premise,” the FX on Hulu anthology series, he is best known for the character Ryan Howard, who rose from a much-abused temp to a corporate executive for the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
Mr. Novak appeared to be taking his stock photo fame with good humor.
“That stock photo shoot always finds a way to come back and haunt me LOL,” Mr. Liu said on Twitter in 2018.
The rights to a photo generally belong to the person who took the picture, unless they have been transferred in some way.