Any Legal Issue on Dead Famous People?

[LarryDomain]

Hi, I was wondering if there's any legal issues in owning a dead person's full name. I doubt they trademarked their name before they died. Can I put up a website talking about their life history??

Thanks for sharing.

 

[jberryhill]

Depends on your dead person, and how you intend to use the domain.

Estée Lauder and Coco Chanel are both dead, and well-known brands.

I doubt they trademarked their name before they died

While I'm still confused by the regular use of "trademark" as a verb on this forum, the question is whether their name is used in commerce to identify particular goods or services.

The estates of such persons as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson derive significant revenue from those names, and are fairly rabid about enforcing rights in those names.

You'll find quite a few cases brought by an outfit called CMG Worldwide, which specializes in managing the publicity and trademark rights for quite a number of dead people:

http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/94187.htm
JamesDean.net.

http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/94661.htm
CHUCKBERRY.COM

http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/95645.htm
dianaspencer.com

http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/95966.htm
vincelombardi.com

http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/144631.htm
humphreybogart.com