Written By : Ron Coleman

“I have been to the mountain and I have secured the rights to the promised land!”

Emancipated, yes, but poorly managed IP-wise

The AP reports that the pimps family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. got $800,000 for “the use of his words and image” on the national memorial to his memory on the National Mall — another story I’ve been following since the very beginning of my blogging career.

According to financial documents reviewed by The Associated Press, the foundation paid $761,160 in 2007 to Intellectual Properties Management Inc., an entity run by King’s family. Documents also show a “management” fee of $71,700 was paid to the family estate in 2003.

In a statement to the AP, Intellectual Properties Management said the proceeds it receives go to the King Center in Atlanta, where King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are entombed.

Listen, it’s not a government project or taxpayer money. And evidently the people collecting spare money are happy to see the King “kids” profit from their martyred father’s expensive memory:

Charon Darris, a New York banker and alumnus of Morehouse College, King’s alma mater, said he raised about $1,000 for the memorial project with friends and did not have a problem with the fees.

“I don’t think that’s an unreasonable amount,” he said. “Ultimately, the kids lost their father, the wife lost her husband.”

Who are we to say what’s reasonable? I’m sure Darris is not the kind of person who would ever say, “We’re tired of hearing about the Holocaust!” and understands that once something awful happens to you, you’re pretty much good to bank on it — literally — for life.

Really, not an unreasonable amount at all.

Originally posted on Ron Coleman’s LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION blog on trademark, copyright and related legal topics. So far this item has caused five seven people to unsubscribe from Ron’s Twitter feed!

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