'Aunt Jemima's' heirs sue product makers for $2 billion

wgal news 8 ^ | 8-11-2014 | Patrick M. Sheridan

[blueplum]

was there even such a thing as ‘royalties’ in the 50’s?

[publius911]

I won’t comment because I like pancakes.

I won't comment because I still remember that Sambo's pancakes were really good. We had a restaurant about 3 blocks from home as the crow flies.

[Utah Binger]

Looks like Elsie has a case.

[Oliviaforever]

I do not disagree with you on that.

But, if Elvis Presley’s grand children can live off a dead man, these people should able to live off their dead great grandmother.

That is assuming that the old lady did not sign away the right to her likeness. But even if she did, Quaker will likely be writing a check.

[publius911]

Is the “Light” Crust Doughboys racist?

No, but it offends the weight challenged big time!

[Usagi_yo]

I won’t comment because I haven’t read the court documents yet so I don’t know the legal merits.

Call me old-fashioned.

[Bitsy]

Do you think the attorneys will end up with most of the money?

[Slump Tester]

Brings a song to mind:

Original Electric Aunt Jemima

Acapello version by The Persuasions.

[Sawdring]

Think of whip cracker, not soup cracker when you hear that racial slur being used.

[longtermmemmory]

1. Statute of Limitations

2. What does the contract say?

3. Seems this is like “betty crocker”

4. Where are the sanctions against the law firms with these “victory through embarrassment” suits?

[cynwoody]

Ione Brown, at age 47, is featured in a northern Minnesota newspaper, the Park Region Echo in 1950. Brown is the maternal grandmother of NPR's Michele Norris, co-host of All Things Considered. In an upcoming interview with host Michel Martin, Norris shares her family's complex history with matters of race, as chronicled in her new memoir The Grace of Silence..

[TexasRepublic]

Are they kidding? It’s a generic picture. All mammies look alike to me. To quote Hillary: “What difference does it make?”

[Bitsy]

Holder is still there
I can’t wait to see the weasel go.

[KarlInOhio]

The great-grandsons say Quaker exploited Harrington with the intent of not paying royalties toward her estate after her death in 1955.

And they just noticed today? Isn't there a concept in law where you have to act quickly to reconcile an offense rather than letting it fester in order to build up the bill? I know in patent law when we discovered another company infringing on our patents we had to notify them as soon as we found out or risked losing any penalties for infringement. Waiting nearly 60 years should be enough to get the case tossed out.

[longtermmemmory]

they have a serious statute of limitations problem.

The product name can be changed and they are sol.

[EDINVA]

Pay for doing commercials in the 50s isn’t comparable to later years. She probably got a pittance. Now, if they used her recipe and had a contract, the company should be OK, if not, there’s probably a good settlement in store for those young men and other relatives. Quaker Oats (and other publicly traded, consumer oriented companies) can’t take too much bad publicity.

[eldoradude]

Chuckling...reparations yeah.

[martin_fierro]

[cynwoody]

My guess is that most of the posters on this thread would be singing a different tune if their grandmother’s likeness were used by a corporation to make billions of dollars.

And then there was Milton Sirotta, aged 9, who coined a word for the number 1 with a hundred zeros after it.

Screw 'em all!

[Political Junkie Too]

I hear that the renowned private investigator Remington Steele in on the case as we speak.

Is this a case of someone claiming to be the "real" incarnation of what was a fictionalized character, and then demanding money as the "heir?"

-PJ