IP and estates

It is said that about 70% of all people who die fail to have a will.  Sometimes a lengthy legal process follows, in which the various interested parties fight for their fair share.  What happens with intellectual property?  Intellectual Property is a type of personal property, which means that it can follow with the rest of the estate.  It is important that any trade marks be dealt with as with any other property.

A further issue arises with regard to unregistered trade marks, a sorry situation which occurred recently with regard to the mark IAN ADAM (http://bit.ly/5zs9jM).  Ian Adam was a very successful and well-respected voice coach.  When he died, a number of parties were still interested in using his techniques and continuing his work.  One of these was a teacher who had filled in for Mr Adam when he was on holiday or otherwise unavailable.  This person applied to register the words IAN ADAM as a trade mark.

The next of kin of Mr Adam attempted to stop the mark from becoming registered, arguing that people would be misled (thinking that Mr Adam would be involved).  They also said that the application was made in bad faith, knowing of the rights of Mr Marks.  This challenge was rejected.

It seems sad that the work of a third party should be unfairly monopolised by way of the registration of trade marks when perhaps the right thing would be that it be left to flower for the benefit of the public.  It will be interesting to see whether the owner of the mark tries to stop others from legitimately saying that they practise Mr Adam’s methods – if not, then why register the mark?  Perhaps it was a reactive effort on the basis that the teacher thought she might be prevented from doing just that herself.