King estate aims to protect the MLK brand

The same folks who gave us a video-shopped image of Martin Luther King shilling for a French telecom company are now hoppin’ mad that street vendors across the country are selling T-shirts bearing images of MLK that celebrate President-elect Obama’s historic election – without having paid the appropriate licensing fees to the King estate.

From an AP story:

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., King’s nephew and head of the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said the estate is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees – maybe even millions.

“Some of this is probably putting food on people’s plates. We’re not trying to stop anybody from legitimately supporting themselves,” he said, “but we cannot allow our brand to be abused.”

Our brand. Think about that.

I guess Farris was called upon to speak because the King offspring are too busy suing each other. This is all very sad.