following the death of diana, princess of wales, the diana, princess of wales memorial fund was granted intellectual property rights over her image. in 1998, after refusing the franklin mint an official license to produce diana merchandise, the fund sued the company, accusing it of illegally selling diana dolls, plates and jewelry. in california, where the initial case was tried, a suit to preserve the "right of publicity" may be filed on behalf of a dead person, but only if that person is a californian. the memorial fund therefore filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate, and upon losing the case, was countersued by franklin mint in 2003. in november 2004, the case was settled out of court with the diana memorial fund agreeing to pay £13.5 million to charitable causes on which both sides agreed. in addition to this, the diana, princess of wales memorial fund had spent a total of close to £4 million in costs and fees relating to this litigation, and as a result froze grants allocated to a number of charities.