Legal News

Purveyors of Marilyn Monroe Memorabilia Get Favorable Ruling

By Dan Slater

Milton H. Greene

There she is, the original Blonde Bombshell whose image was immortalized when she stepped atop a subway grate in Billy Wilder’s classic film, “The Seven Year Itch.” Now that image, which has earned millions in licensing fees for Marilyn Monroe’s estate, is free for all to use and sell.

Why? It all comes down to right of publicity, which, in this case, turned on that age-old civil procedure issue: In what state did Monroe reside when she died in 1962?

Today’s WSJ reports that district Judge Margaret Morrow in Los Angeles sided with the families of photographers, ruling that Monroe was a New Yorker, meaning she has no right of publicity (whereas in California, right of publicity survives a celebrity’s death). In the 1960s, the judge noted, the executor of Monroe’s estate told California tax authorities she was a New York resident, so as to limit the California inheritance taxes owed by the estate. The judge also cited testimony from a friend and business colleague of Monroe’s that while the actress owned a home in California, it was only because she disliked hotels and needed a place to stay during business trips.

Marilyn Monroe LLC says it plans to appeal. The ruling “ignores the overwhelming evidence that Marilyn Monroe herself considered California as her domicile,” says Martin Pollner, a lawyer for the estate.

The lawyer for the photographers’ families, Surjit Soni, says if the estate can no longer extract a licensing fee, “you will see a great deal more Marilyn-related products, and they will be lower in price.” He added: “most purveyors and owners of copyrighted Marilyn photographs are very respectful of her image and are always very concerned not to erode the value of their property.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 31, 1969 (boomark / email).