Court Fight Builds Over Virtual Marilyn Monroe

— -- A California company is fighting to reanimate the original blond bombshell, Marilyn Monroe, similarly to other deceased celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson.

Monroe has been dead for 52 years, but a court fight continues to brew over the use of her likeness. At stake is who gets to cash in when technology resurrects a superstar.

The technology is relatively new and complicated.

Hologram USA, a hologram studio in Los Angeles, California, recently showed "World News Tonight" how it's done, creating a hologram of David Muir next to David Wright in California.

According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, a lawsuit was filed Wednesday against The estate of Marilyn Monroe by Virtual Marilyn LLC. In the lawsuit, Virtual Marilyn LLC alleges that it holds copyright registrations encompassing "audiovisual work and character artwork depicting a computer-generated virtual actress adopting the persona of Marilyn Monroe."

The lawsuit alleges that Monroe’s heirs are getting in the way of the computer-generated character.

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"Marilyn Monroe’s estate claims that this is a violation of Marilyn’s rights even though she has passed away, but the people behind the Virtual Marilyn character believe they are well within their rights to have an impersonator virtually impersonating her,” said Matthew Belloni, executive editor of The Hollywood Reporter.

Terri D. Paolo, attorney for The Marilyn Monroe Estate, told ABC News that the estate does not comment on litigation matters.

This isn’t the first time that Monroe’s estate has challenged a possible CG performance, with a similar situation emerging in 2012 over talks of concerts featuring a “Virtual Marilyn.”

Monroe’s estate earns an estimated $30 million annually in licensing fees.