Phone company's 'Einstein' ads shelved due to Hebrew U. copyright row

Pelephone removed the name "Einstein" from its outdoor advertising in response to a request from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which owns the rights to the image of Albert Einstein and the use of his name in Israel. The company will remove the signs themselves within a few days. The oversight is estimated to cost the mobile phone firm hundreds of thousands of shekels.

Pelephone used the slogan "Everyone's become an Einstein" as part of its current ad campaign for its Google search service on its mobile phones. The Hebrew University appealed to the CEOs of Pelephone and Google Israel with an urgent request to stop their use of Einstein's name immediately. The university said in a statement, "If the companies do not remove the advertisements we will consider submitting an urgent request to issue a cease-and-desist order against Pelephone and Google."

The university's statement noted that "the price of a license to use the Einstein brand as part of this type of campaign is estimated at NIS 400,000, and the companies did not arrange for this."

In his will, Einstein left the university his personal papers and the intellectual copyright to them, as well as the right to use his image. The scientist's writings are housed in the Albert Einstein Archives at the university, which contains about 55,000 items.

Google Israel said in response that although the advertising campaign uses the Google brand, because Pelephone is responsible for it Google Israel does not wish to comment on the issue. Pelephone declined to issue a response.