What are your thoughts on this trademark article? The article called, "CELEBRITIES SUE OVER UNAUTHORIZED USE OF IDENTITY." As the title suggests, the author briefly defines the concept of the right of publicity, and then goes on to briefly highlight various cases featuring celebrities. One such case is that of Johnny Carson's battle "to prevent a portable toilet company from using "Here's Johnny."1 For those who may not be aware, Johnny Carson was once the host of The Tonight Show (pre-Jay Leno). During his tenure, he was always introduced with the phrase, "Here's Johnny". The phrase "Here's Johnny" is generally associated with Carson by a substantial segment of the television audience."2 Carson filed suit against Here's Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc., seeking "damages and an injunction prohibiting any further use of the phrase "Here's Johnny" as a corporate name or in connection with the sale or rental of its portable toilets."2 What's interesting about both this case and the Bette Midler case against Ford Motors(1,3) is that there could potentially have been some agreement made prior to the defendants taking the actions they took. (I am a bit confused as to why Ford felt it necessary to take that risk since they were/are already big, whereas Here's Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc. wasn't and needed all the help they could get in terms of popularity and attention.) Perhaps they assumed that the answer would be an emphatic NO, so they decided to push ahead with their actions. I get the distinct impression that they assumed the reward would be greater than the risk, but I'm struggling to think of a company successfully trading on a celebrity's popularity in the ways Ford and Here's Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc., attempted to. Can any of you think of any