Community Chat

[raven-blackbird]

On 11/7/2014 KathyPet said: So Anna herself never sued the company for any payment, her children and her grandchildren never sought any money from the company. now her great grandchildren say they are due payment. Seems suspicious to me that none of the family members that personally knew Anna thought they were due any payment but now these great grandsons who didn't even know her think they are due money.

Yahtzeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...........................................raven

[sidsmom]

....'industrial spies'. Why do I feel like those grandsons are sittin' around, sporting tin foil hats?

[sylviahomeatlast]

oh puleeze! everyone sues everyone pretty soon there won't be anybody who hasn't been sued. just seems greedy to me.

[shamalamadingdong4]

What was the contract? The descendents are fur generations removed. It seems fishy to me too.

[Kachina624]

How does anyone know this woman wasn't fairly paid for the use of her image? Pancake recipes are dime a dozen and there certainly is nothing distinctive about Aunt Jemima's. Just average pancakes.

[scotttie]

This sentence stands out to me:

"" “equitable fair share of royalties” to their family for more than 60 year""

This sounds like at one time there was an agreement that royalties were to have been paid and the company didn't continue?

It would be interesting to have the entire story. There really isn't enough info in this article to make a judgment if the family is entitled to compensation or not.

[occasionalrain]

On 11/7/2014 kachina624 said: Another money grab attempt by people who've done nothing to earn it. I hope Quaker Oats prevails.

The bottom line.

[Cakers1]

60 years is a long time but 60 years and back many people were paid pennies for rights to many things, including board games.

Let's not forget that a lawsuit initiated by an AA family would be scoffed at even more back then.

If a payment was agreed upon back then there is nothing to recover, imo.

And yes, a recipe for a basic pancake is pretty much universal.

[anisa]

On 11/7/2014 cody said:

I suppose I would need more history on the contract in place to use her likeness on their products. I am a little suspicious as to why this is just coming up after 60 years.

We have no idea how long this has been in the works or when her generations started questioning the lack of compensation.

[Madisson]

If her image is on file at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Pepsico will probably argue that they own her image.

Sounds like a case where relatives are trying to make $$ off one of their ancestors. Alexander Graham Bell invented the phone. Are all his relatives getting royalties for all the phones that are made?