General Motors ran the ad a couple of years ago to promote the 2010 GMC Terrain -- a small crossover SUV – with the tagline: Ideas are sexy too.
The court case was brought by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which claimed the ad violated its right to the use of Einstein’s likeness which he’d left to them in his will.
Einstein died in 1955 – 55 years before the ad ran – and at the time the estate was settled, a 50-year limit applied to copyright. In a complicated legal argument, the University essentially asked for a ruling to extend their copyright to the 70 year limit that exists under California law today.
The case – heard not in California but in New Jersey, where Einstein died – was decided in GM’s favour, with the ruling that New Jersey’s 50 year span after a celebrity’s death was sufficient time for copyright use of their image. Even if the use was deemed “tasteless”.
“The obviously humorous ad for the 2010 Terrain having been published 55 years or more after Einstein’s death, it is unlikely that any viewer of it could reasonably infer that Einstein … was endorsing the GMC Terrain,” the ruling says.
