Diana's Estate Loses Lawsuit

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/30/1997 at 12:00 AM EST

The estate of Princess Diana was ordered by a federal judge in Los Angeles this week to pay nearly $2.3 million to the Franklin Mint for attorney fees incurred while the company successfully fought a two-year trademark infringement lawsuit over a Diana figurine that it had manufactured and marketed. The Associated Press reports that the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund lost its suit to stop the Mint from selling Diana-related products because, the judge ruled, Diana never challenged products bearing her name in the 16 years before she died in 1997.