One of the icons of Las Vegas, weddings officiated by an Elvis Presley impersonator, are in danger of extinction after the warning issued to some chapels that offer this service by the company that manages the rights of the King of Rock . As published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal , a few days ago several of the wedding businesses in this American city received notice with a time frame to remove Elvis from his program that he has already expired.
Authentic Brands Group (ABG) is the company in charge of granting the exploitation licenses of the image of Elvis Presley. It has ‘Elvis’, ‘Elvis Presley’ and ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ registered as protected trademarks and, in addition, also manages the rights of other iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali. What the ABG intends is that those who are not authorized to use “the name, image, voice and other elements of the personality of Elvis Presley in advertisements, merchandise and other elements” stop doing so. And one of its goals is to put an end to weddings officiated by Elvis without authorization.
The communication, which for now seems to have reached only a limited number of chapels, has generated confusion and concern in a sector that was beginning to see a little light after two years complicated by the pandemic. In statements to the aforementioned local media, the Clark County Clerk, Lynn Goya, has assured that “this could not hit at a worse time. It’s not a good thing. It could destroy a part of our wedding industry . Several people could lose their livelihood.” Some chapels, they report, have already begun removing Elvis-officiated wedding offerings from their websites.
The letter sent to some of these businesses is signed by an ABG lawyer and notifies its recipients that the deadline to comply with what is asked of them ends on May 27. After that date, if Elvis has not been removed from the menu offer, they could face legal action. Some of those chapels, in addition to marriages officiated by the King of Rock, also include his name or image in the name.
In the Las Vegas Review-Journal they point out that there could be the option that the chapel in question and the ABG still reach a license agreement, although no further data or information is given on this option. Melody Willis-Williams, president of Vegas Weddings and Viva Las Vegas Weddings, has assessed that “this could be very damaging to our industry. Most of us are small businesses facing a superpower with deep pockets. You could kill us in attorney fees to fight this.”
In addition, Willis-Williams has collected the feelings of many of those affected, who claim that these types of weddings are part of the image of the city. “ Elvis weddings are synonymous with Las Vegas. We keep Elvis alive,” she assures.
For his part, Kent Ripley, from Elvis Weddings, has mentioned the disappointment that this situation can cause in clients, since “we receive reservations that have been planned for three, four, five years to have an Elvis wedding”. He adds that “they want to protect the Elvis brand. But what are they protecting by keeping Elvis away from the public? ”