General Motors Sued Over Einstein Ad

GM’s latest ad in the November issue of People magazine brought it nothing but trouble. Many people might not know this, but the Nobel Prize-winning German scientist left its publicity rights to a Jewish university before he died in 1955, detnews.com reported. Now, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has sued American carmaker General Motors on May 19 for more than $75,000.

The ad featured Albert Einstein’s head onto the body of a muscle-bound underwear model and added the slogan “Ideas Are Sexy Too.” Moreover, the model bears an “E=MC2” tattoo in a stylized font on his left shoulder.

After turning the page of the magazine, the third page of the advertisement features additional text stating “That’s why we gave it more ideas per square inch.”

"It may be GM thought, 'Oh, he died and the rights are all public domain now,' " John T. Brooks, a partner with Chicago law firm Foley & Lardner LLP who specializes in estates and trusts, was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source. "It's old and cold and nobody's got rights to it."

"I suppose you could make a business decision that you can make so much money that you can withstand a lawsuit that would tell them to stop and fine them something," Brooks added. "It wouldn't be the first time a corporation has done something thinking they might pay the price for it, but it's worth it."

On the other hand, a spokesman for the carmaker says the company purchased the right to use Einstein’s image from a firm that guarantees clients it has the rights to use the images. However, the same source refused to indicate the name of that firm.