In July 2003, physicist Dr Tony Rothman received an email from his editor warning that Albert Einstein's estate was 'extremely aggressive and litigious' over use of the scientist's image. Rothman's publisher, Wiley, faced potential legal action unless it paid a hefty fee to put Einstein on the cover of Rothman's book, Everything's Relative. Rothman was dismayed, questioning whether the estate even owned the rights to Einstein's likeness.
Einstein died in 1955, bequeathing his literary property to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which he co-founded. His will made no mention of publicity rights, as the legal concept did not exist at the time. When the university took control of his estate in 1982, however, it began aggressively asserting control over the commercial use of Einstein's name and image, licensing products from calculators to toys and suing those who used his likeness without permission.
From 2006 to 2017, Einstein featured annually on Forbes' list of top-earning dead celebrities, bringing in an average of $12.5m a year in licensing fees for the Hebrew University. A conservative estimate puts his posthumous earnings for the university at $250m. Critics argue Einstein resisted commercialisation in life and would not have approved of this exploitation, with one law professor calling the university's actions 'the new grave robbing'.
The university's licensing process is opaque, with potential licensees submitting proposals to unnamed arbitrators. Targets have included Coca-Cola, Apple, and Disney, which paid $2.66m for a 50-year licence to use 'Baby Einstein'. Despite legal pushback, the university maintains it is protecting Einstein's legacy, but many question whether the battle over his image aligns with the scientist's own values.
