A Portrait of a Living Individual Cannot be Registered as a Trade-Mark Unless by Consent of the Individual Whose Portrait is Used, or, if a Minor, by Consent of his Legal Guardian
This section of the law is based on the recognized right of any person to prohibit the unauthorized reproduction of his portrait for any advertising purpose. In some of the states—New York, for example—there are state laws specifically forbidding such unauthorized reproduction.
Registered as a trade-mark by the Saturday Evening Post.
While the law prohibits the registration of a living individual's portrait as a trade-mark, without that person's consent, it is allowable to use the portrait of a historical character.
The trade-mark of the Robert Burns Cigar is a picture of the poet Burns, with his facsimile signature.
Pictures of Franklin, Napoleon, Henry Clay, Bismarck, and many other famous men are used as trade-marks. A cereal recently placed on the market under the name of "Washington Crisps" carries George Washington's portrait on the package.
Benjamin Franklin's face is registered as a trade-mark by the Curtis Publishing Company, and is printed in this connection on the editorial page of the Saturday Evening Post.
This face has been printed more times than any other portrait ever used in advertising.
A celebrated instance of a face used as a trade-mark is shown in the picture of Gerhard Mennen on this page. Mennen's Talcum Powder was produced by Gerhard Mennen, who had his own picture put on each package as an identification to the purchaser. After years of use, his portrait was formally registered in the Patent Office.
Another famous face is that of W. L. Douglas, shoe manufacturer and Ex-Governor of Massachusetts.
A very effective trade-mark is a combination of Thomas A. Edison's portrait and signature, used with the Edison Phonograph. Edison is known by reputation to every American, and his picture and signature used in connection with a mechanical device, give it the stamp of high excellence. Imagine how much more difficult the selling effort of the Edison Phonograph Company would have been if they had called their instrument The Voltex Phonograph, for example, or some similar name.
Everybody has seen the Woodbury face, which is identified with Woodbury's Facial Soap, and other preparations of the Andrew Jergens Company of Cincinnati. This is a very valuable trade-mark, on account of the extensive advertising, running through many years, that has been given it. One of the striking features of this trade-mark is that the head seems to be neatly decapitated just under the chin. This odd appearance makes the memory of this picture stick in the reader's mind longer than any ordinary portrayal of a human face.