Charts & Graphs

Image Is Everything

Celebrities make a legal claim for their slogans, voices, and likenesses.

  • Thomas Edison v. Edison Polyform Manufacturing Company (1907)

    Case: Edison did not want his image used on the company’s medicine labels.

    Final Ruling: Granted Edison the right to his likeness, stating “that the peculiar cast of one’s features” and “its pecuniary value” should belong to its owner.

  • Haelan Laboratories, Inc v. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. (1953)

    Case: Topps printed cards of a baseball player who had an exclusive contract with Haelan.

    Final Ruling: Established precedent for the “right of publicity”: the baseball player owned the “value of his photograph, i.e., the right to grant the exclusive privilege of publishing his picture.”

  • Hugo Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Company (1977)

    Case: Zacchini, “a human cannonball,” filed suit against a TV news program for airing his 15-second act and reducing the mystery surrounding it.

    Final Ruling: Defended Zacchini so as to provide an “economic incentive for him to make the investment required to produce a performance of interest to the public.”

  • John W. Carson v. Here’s Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc. (1982)

    Case: Carson filed suit against the company for appropriating his noncopyrighted catchphrase.

    Final Ruling: Decided that a “celebrity’s legal right of publicity is invaded whenever his identity is intentionally appropriated for commercial purposes.”

  • Bette Midler v. Ford Motor Co. (1988)

    Case: Midler declined to lend her voice to a Ford ad, so the company secured rights to her lyrics and hired a former backup singer to record the track.

    Final Ruling: Awarded Midler $400,000, holding that “to impersonate her voice is to pirate her identity,” since the “widely known” voice was “deliberately imitated to sell a product.”

  • Vanna White v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (1993)

    Case: White filed suit against Samsung for a commercial that depicted a robot in a blond wig, jewelry, and evening gown, turning Wheel of Fortune–like letters.

    Final Ruling: Upheld White’s “common-law right of publicity,” qualifying that “the difference between ‘parody’ and ‘knock-off ’ is the difference between fun and profit.”