From reading the story, it sounds like that Dale Sr. owned the rights to his son's name, as that would be the only reason that the rights would transfer on his death to his estate. Sounds like a new business model. Trademark all your kids' names in case they become famous. I bet this is something all those stage mothers and fathers would consider.
Wingnut, I'm way off topic here, sort of, but excellent referencing of Mrs. Colleen Howe. I said a prayer for her tonight , something we all maybe should. It's true, behind every great man is a great woman.
Jr. was already well known when his dad was killed and I'm sure DEI had the rights to Jr.'s name for merchandising purposes. For all we know at this point, Theresa held the rights until she thought Jr. had matured enough to be trusted to handle decisions about endorsements and the like without having to run it by her first. After all, he's still invariably tied to DEI and anything he does will be something of a reflection on the company. She could have sold him the rights for $1. On the other hand, if she transfered control to herself and then charged him a bundle, that's just wrong. I doubt it though, because Jr. has never been shy about making noise if he thinks he's been wronged. If she was a little unreasonable, he might let it slide. If she really put the screws to him, I think we'd have heard about it.
Why do u have to buy ur own name?? Who owns the rights to the name of "artist formerly known as prince"?
its not hard to do..all you gotta do is trade mark it..just like cyber squatters, for 35 bucks you can own "coke.com" it was a lucrative way to make money back in the mid to late 90's..some companies paid over a million bucks to get their name back,because somebody was smart about the net, that it was going to explode in growth,an it did..corporate america and a lot of celebrities,had to fork over piles of money,it was for a time, the best get rich quick scheme ever.. some of the squatters are now multi-millioniares...
