How much money can IP earn after the inventor has passed away? Quite a bit, judging from the earnings of the estate of Albert Einstein. Last year, Einstein’s IP earned $18 million (ever heard of ‘Baby Einstein?’) “I’m sure this money was much appreciated by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, [which] owns the rights to Einstein’s intellectual property and image, according to Einstein’s will,” says Neal Hechtkopf, an issue analyst for the Washington, DC-based PR firm TMG Strategies. Each year, Greenlight — the company Hebrew University hired to manage Einstein’s rights — receives approximately 400 applications requesting the use of his image, and only about 40 of these requests are granted, Hechtkopf reports. Carefully guarding those rights can yield high fees from sources who didn’t realize those rights were still protected. Take the Israeli telephone company Pelephone. It used the slogan “Everyone’s become an Einstein” in its marketing campaign and was asked by Hebrew University to stop using Einstein’s name. The reason? “Because the company wouldn’t pay the more than $100,000 sum that Hebrew University wanted to charge for permission,” says Hechtkopf. Go to: TMG Strategies

Posted November 11th, 2008 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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