The Complicated Legal Problems concerning the Likeness of Jobs

Could the deceased’s right of likeness be protected in China?

Our website has posted the article How to Combat the Infringing Steven Jobs Doll in Chinese Market, introducing the Chinese laws and regulations regarding the infringement of right of likeness according to this event. Later, we read an American legal professional’s comment, Apple Won’t be Able to Stop Steve Jobs Action Figure from Going on Sale in Most States, saying Apple’s legal claim is largely bogus. While people can indeed own rights to their likeness, those rights usually apply only to living people. Unlike other forms of intellectual property like patents or copyrights, image rights do not survive beyond the grave in most places.

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How to Combat the Infringing Steve Jobs Doll in Chinese Market

—Does Chinese Makers of Steve Jobs  Action Figures Constitute Crime?

As The Telegraphy reports, the Chinese company In Icons met with the legal challenge of the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL, LSE:ACP) threatening to sue it if it doesn’t cease making Steven Jobs action doll.

I have done a research on the biggest C2Cwebsite, TaoBao, finding at least two hundreds web selling Steven Jobs action figures with various sizes, the prices of which range from 4 dollars to 100 dollars that are much cheaper than 99.99 dollars of In Icons. Obviously, the Apple and the owner of right of Steven Jobs’s likeness shall combat the infringing products in China.

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