Psaki wouldn't provide details about legal options the White House counsel's office is considering to deal with commercial use of Obama's likeness.

The White House lawyers may have to make case-by-case determinations about the best ways to protect the presidential image without tempering enthusiasm or trampling on free-speech protections, said Jonathan Band, an intellectual property lawyer in Washington.

"It will be difficult," Band said. "Because he is the president of the United States and there was this campaign and everyone's proud, I think the First Amendment will be applied much more broadly with respect to people wanting to use an image of the president than it would be with typical entertainment figures or sports figures."

"Its par for the course," he said. Presidents have all been imitated, positively and negatively, in one form or another, he said. "When you have really newsworthy and dynamic figures they invite parody, they invite idolizations, they invite imitation in one mode or another."