"A maximum 50-year postmortem duration here would be a reasonable middle ground that is long enough

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This General Motors ad featuring an unusually buff Albert Einstein does not violate any laws, a federal judge ruled in Los Angeles. Hebrew University claims it is control of the late physicist Einstein's likeness.
He also Matz ruled any right Hebrew University had to sue expired in 2005 - 50 years after Einstein's death, because that was the limit on copyright law in 1982, when Hebrew University acquired Einstein's right of publicity.
"A maximum 50-year postmortem duration here would be a reasonable middle ground that is long enough for a deceased celebrity's heirs to take advantage of and reap the benefit of the personal aspects of the right," wrote Matz, who ruled on the case without a trial.
At another point in the ruling, he wrote: "The obviously humorous ad for the 2010 Terrain having been published the best airline credit cards 55 years or more after Einstein's death, it is unlikely that any viewer of it could reasonably infer that Einstein or whoever succeeded to any right of publicity that Einstein may have had was endorsing the GMC Terrain."
Hebrew University, home of the Albert Einstein Archives, argued the court should apply federal copyright law, which protects works for 70 years after copyright holders' deaths. But that term was only extended from 50 to 70 years in 1998.
The university the best airline credit cards filed the lawsuit in California, where a state law gives a postmortem right of publicity to people's beneficiaries for 70 years. But Matz said California law is irrelevant since Einstein did not live here.
The judge said New Jersey's Legislature and courts haven't addressed exactly how long a postmortem right of publicity lasts in that state since it exists only in common law, rather than in written statutes.
"The Ninth Circuit (a federal appeals court) recently noted that Marilyn Monroe considered herself to belong `to the Public the best airline credit cards and to the world,' " Matz wrote. "There is no evidence that Albert Einstein saw himself that way, but he did become the symbol and embodiment of genius. His persona has become thoroughly ingrained in our cultural heritage. Now, nearly 60 years after his death, that persona should be freely available to those who seek to appropriate it as part of their own expression, even in tasteless ads."