December 16, 2005

Family fights for Park's estate - they say caregivers are misusing legacy

When a printer ran off 10,000 copies of Rosa Park's obituary and funeral program and sold them for $10 a piece, family members say they felt it cheapened her name and accomplishments. Now her nieces and nephews are asking for her will to be voided and to put one nephew in charge of her estate. The issue isn't an inheritance; it is control of the legal rights to her name and its use. Jessica Litman, who teaches intellectual property and copyright courses at Wayne State 's Law School , said Parks' name has little (monetary) value by itself. But with an aggressive enforcement campaign to get license fees for its use, it could be valuable. "Surely people will be interested in making motion pictures, biographies, documentaries about her," said Litman. "If someone could claim to own either that right, or the right to pictures of her, I can imagine that going for a tidy sum."

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