My first post will be a fun and easy one. Recently this year, an article was posted on Facebook saying that an elderly man had passed away, and to locate his family, someone did a DNA test that found the man to be a 99% match with Elvis Aaron Presley. Stories began to surface about Elvis’ behavior before his death in 1977, including that he was sick of the celebrity lifestyle and was feeling depressed. Also, with the new details that he might have lived longer, people began to speculate about whether his relationship with President Nixon before his alleged death gave him access to a witness protection program. The world thought that Elvis hated his fame and asked Nixon to hide him from his fans, until 2015 when he actually died, happy and humble.
This was quickly discovered to be a hoax. Elvis did indeed die August 16, 1977. However, what would be the legal effect of his secret death on his intellectual property?
The Copyright Act says that a copyright is valid when the work is fixed in a tangible medium, which is a recording, usually hard-copy. (a law that is becoming obsolete in a world where more and more works are being transferred and stored without hard-copies) The protection continues for typically seventy years after the death of the artist that created the work, given some variation based on how it was created, published, or registered. So when Elvis died in 1977, his seventy year clock began ticking, and around 2047, his copyrights will expire and his works will become public domain. However, if he did not die until 2015, his works will be protected until 2085, almost 40 more years of protection from infringement, or the improper or unauthorized use of the work.
This would not affect his Trademarks in the same way. Trademarks are valid as long as the owner continues the registry on it and continues to use the name, symbol, mark, or logo. So his trademark protection will continue as long as someone from his estate files with the USPTO, and uses the images of him.
Its always fun to speculate about celebrity scandal or secrets lost throughout history, but for some of us, it’s just as much fun to hypothesize about the legal effects of these circumstances. Some stories die, and some just go home to Graceland.
the story on the Hoax
tyler talks ip 