Anna Nicole Gold Rush Continues

April 5, 2007 — -- Craig R. Miner wasn't exactly a fan of Anna Nicole Smith, the voluptuous former Playboy model who died in February.

But the 37-year-old Connecticut farmer does like money. When he was at his local bookstore a few weeks ago, he started flipping through "Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks for Dummies" and got the idea of trademarking celebrities' names.

When Miner got home, he went to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Administration's Web site and started searching names. "I hit a few names that were in and weren't in ... and I hit Anna Nicole Smith. And I applied for it. Ideally, I'd like to sell it."

So far, Miner has not had any takers. Then again, he hasn't had a chance to check his e-mail today because he's been out on his tractor, checking the tobacco leaves that he grows.

In the end, Miner doesn't have much of a chance of making any money off the famous name, say trademark attorneys.

"What's clear is that someone not authorized by the estate has no right to trademark that person's name," says Paul van Slyke, an attorney who helped the Elvis Presley estate successfully sue the Velvet Elvis, a bar in Memphis.

All states have laws that protect the right of publicity. "During a person's lifetime, we all have a right of publicity -- nobody can use our identity, signature, picture and voice to advertise commercial products or interests," says van Slyke.

Many states have postmortem statutes that extend that right after a person's death, most notably, the Elvis Presley statute in Tennessee, a law the late singer's estate lobbied the legislature to enact.

Van Slyke says that Anna Nicole Smith's estate could either challenge the application for the trademark or, if Miner began to use it, sue him and attempt to recover the trademark application.

"I don't want any trouble," said Miner when informed about right of publicity laws. "That's a marketable name. I'm not trying to do anything deceitful."

Richard C. Milstein, the lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith's daughter Dannielynn, did not return calls for comment.