{"id":1149,"date":"2015-02-24T17:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T22:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2023-07-25T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T16:18:08","slug":"marley-heirs-win-lanham-act-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2015\/02\/marley-heirs-win-lanham-act-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Marley Heirs Win Lanham Act Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Billboard<\/a>, Bob Marley’s heirs succeeded in obtaining damages from merchandisers who utilized Marley’s image without the\u00a0estate’s permission. To prevent unauthorized uses of Marley’s likeness, his children created Fifty-Six Hope Road Music, a company which regulates the licensing of his image. In this\u00a0case, which began in 2008,\u00a0Fifty-Six Hope\u00a0sued A.V.E.L.A. and other manufacturers of various items bearing Marley’s image, which were\u00a0sold at large national retailers such as Walmart and Target. The heirs claimed that A.V.E.L.A. violated the Lanham Act because consumers would confuse the origin of the Marley-image bearing goods–assuming that the Marley estate endorsed or approved the products. In 2011, the plaintiffs were victorious, which prompted this\u00a0rebuttal from A.V.E.L.A. The merchandiser claimed that the court applied the concept of false endorsement too broadly,\u00a0and consequently, had effectively created a federal right of publicity. In response, the Marley heirs\u00a0conducted a survey that demonstrated that about 37% of respondents assumed that the Marley estate approved one of A.V.E.L.A.’s T-shirts, while only 20% thought a t-shirt exhibiting\u00a0the image of a man resembling Marley, was endorsed by the estate. This was enough of to demonstrate actual confusion, and thus for the 9th Circuit to affirm the lower court’ s ruling. Ultimately, this victory likely will aid celebrities in future cases involving a misappropriation of their likenesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Billboard, Bob Marley’s heirs succeeded in obtaining damages from merchandisers who utilized Marley’s image without the\u00a0estate’s permission. To prevent unauthorized uses of Marley’s likeness, his children created Fifty-Six Hope Road Music, a company which regulates the licensing of his image. In this\u00a0case, which began in 2008,\u00a0Fifty-Six Hope\u00a0sued A.V.E.L.A. and other manufacturers of various 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