Re: Advertising violations

On Sat, Mar 13, 1999, Carol Cricow <carol[_at_]yujean.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, Vance Koven <vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com> wrote:
> >
> > I'm curious about the term of publicity rights. I had thought rights
> > of privacy and publicity were personal rights, and as such would
> > normally expire with the person to whom they attach. Obviously, this
> > is incorrect; what's the black-letter rule on this? Are they
> > perpetual?
>
>
> The Elvis Presley Estate practically invented the tort of right of
> publicity - all after Elvis's death. Death is not hinderance to
> this tort. I don't know how perpetual they are but the Elvis people
> (as well as the 3 Stooges people, the Marilyn Monroe people etc. etc.)
> are still going strong.

Actually, the post-mortem right of publicity is still the minority rule in the United States; the law in most states is that publicity rights expire with the death of the individual. I haven't checked recently, but a few years ago there were about 10-12 states that recognized the right after death -- most by statute, but one or two by common law. The scope of protection varies wildly from state to state, with California being a leading jurisdiction, given the considerable traffic in necro-celebrities generated by Hollywood and the movies.

Greg Ikonen
<gikonen[_at_]venlaw.com> Received on Mon Mar 15 1999 - 16:18:49 GMT