The rights of dead people and replacement parts

A post at BritishLibrary begins:

The Daily Telegraph on the 4 February [2012] had an interesting article, "Selling the dead", by Alix Kirsta, about disputes over the rights to use images or names of dead celebrities.

This is hardly news in the year 2012. In New Jersey, we have had issues over rights to use "Einstein." See 2005 IPBiz post
Right of publicity and trademark disputes over Einstein?

And, as IPBiz noted in 2009, on Sept. 27, 2009, CBS covered right of publicity for dead people. See
Patenting the matchbook

A post at the hallingblog, Design Patents and the Cold Civil War begins

The bill H.R. 3059, titled the “Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade, and Sales” (PARTS) Act claims to reduce the cost of automotive repairs by limiting design patents for automotive parts to 30 months. This bill pits automobile manufacturers against insurance companies and consumer groups.

In January 2008, IPBiz had a post
Design patents and the costs of auto repairs . In May 2008, HR 5638: crash parts and patents

**Of trademarks, a post at iptrademarkattorney about Jeremy Lin includes the text:

But along with the upside of fame comes unauthorized, third-party trademark applicants. A search of the USPTO’s trademark database shows an application filed only six days ago by an unrelated party, Yenchin Chang, to register the “LINsanity” trademark for use on a slew of goods including athletic uniforms, t-shirts, baseball caps and hats, etc. I hope that Mr. Chang does not expect to LIN (yes, that was bad). Trademark law prevents registration of a mark that “consists of or comprises a name, portrait, or signature identifying a particularliving individual except by his written consent.” 15 U.S.C. § 1052(c). [Emphasis by IPBiz]