Among a plethora of possible filings accepted by the California Secretary of State’s office are registrations to become a successor-in-interest to a deceased personality. A deceased personality is considered to be any natural person whose name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness has commercial value at the time of his or her death, or has this value due to his or her death. The point of filing as a successor-interest is to attain rights to sue and recover damages in case the deceased personality’s name, voice, signature, etc. is used without authorization. Without the filing, the successor-in-interest cannot file a claim. In order to find these individuals, use the search tool on the Secretary of State’s website to locate the successor-in-interest of the person for whom you are looking. Also, be aware, the website is incorrect in stating that registering is designed to provide a successor-in-interest the right to use the name or likeness. The point of filing is to be able to recover for damages in case of unauthorized use.
See Keith Paul Bishop, Looking for a Deceased Celebrity’s Successor-in-Interest? The Secretary of State Has an Answer, National Law Review, May 3, 2017.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.
