Disney Withdraws Trademark App On Seal Team 6

from the seal-team-7? dept

Thu, May 26th 2011 4:10pm — Mike Masnick

Disney's attempt to trademark "Seal Team 6," two days after SEAL Team 6 got bin Laden, made the national news as an example of trademark law gone insane. It took a of couple weeks, but Disney came to its senses, realized that it was only going to dig itself in a deeper and deeper hole pursuing this, and has now withdrawn the application. Maybe next time, Disney lawyers will think twice before trying to trademark something so well known.

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Filed Under: seal team six, trademark
Companies: disney

23 Comments

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crade (profile), 26 May 2011 @ 4:02pm

Why would they think twice when they can just give it a try and withdraw if it someone happens to notice?
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Anonymous Coward, 26 May 2011 @ 4:23pm

What Disney was attempting to do reflects not a whit on trademark law. It reflects only on Disney.

As between Disney and the USN filing trademark applications, I am much more troubled by what the USN is or may be doing than I am about Disney.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 May 2011 @ 4:45pm

Re:
It's a good thing Disney doesn't use any of its influence on the political class. Could you just imagine?
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theangryintern (profile), 26 May 2011 @ 5:11pm

What's funny is they're not even called Seal Team 6 anymore, and haven't been since the late 80s
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JMT, 26 May 2011 @ 5:22pm

Speaking of tradement madness, did you ask Apple for permission to use the word "App" in the post title?
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 26 May 2011 @ 5:40pm

Re: Speaking of tradement madness, did you ask Apple for permission to use the word "App" in the post title?
That�s not a trademark infringement until the app is stored.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 May 2011 @ 5:49pm

Re:
There's an app for that.
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Bnesaladur (profile), 26 May 2011 @ 5:56pm

Re:
Still, that fact that they are still known widely as Seal Team 6 means that the trademark is already implied. Attempting to file for a trademark on something to which a implied trademark already exists is pretty low.
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abc gum, 26 May 2011 @ 6:34pm

Why do the Marines not own the trademark, they should have dibs.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 May 2011 @ 6:39pm

Re:
quick! copyright DevGru 6!
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 26 May 2011 @ 6:39pm

Does that mean that Team Seal: Revenge of the Hoop-Jumping Orca animated movie is now off the table?
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Wolfy, 26 May 2011 @ 7:07pm

abc gum,

The Seals, as well as the Marines, are both owned by the Navy.
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JMT, 26 May 2011 @ 8:49pm

Re:
Tradement? WTF? I meant trademark of course...
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Mike Masnick (profile), 26 May 2011 @ 9:52pm

Re:
What Disney was attempting to do reflects not a whit on trademark law. It reflects only on Disney.

I disagree. If Disney didn't think it could do this, it wouldn't have. It reflects poorly on trademark law.

Separately, I find it odd that you always seem to state that any particular awful action is merely an indication of those doing it, and simply refuse to connect the dots. When we point to these sorts of things happening all the time, it seems pretty obvious to anyone paying attention that the problem is the system, not those using it.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 May 2011 @ 12:41am

Remember thst disney is the same group who made a killing off building off other's works while throwing a fit if anyone tried the same with disney's work.

Asshattery from them should be expected at this point.
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FuzzyDuck, 27 May 2011 @ 1:18am

Re: Re:
The problem is indeed the system, in a grab what you can system of monopoly rights distributions, you have to grab what you can before others do or you'll loose out to the "competition". In fact you could state that it's a company's duty to its shareholders to participate in this grab fest.

The system is rotten, and makes these companies behave in rotten ways. Of course these same companies lobbied to make the system rotten in the first place. So we can still blame them.
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darryl, 27 May 2011 @ 1:41am

Just trademark 'Seal Team Six'
problem solved.
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darryl, 27 May 2011 @ 1:46am

Or trademark Seal team 5, from under seige.
They might try to tradement Seal Team 5, but they might get Steven Seagull after you, after all he was from sean team 5 in the movie 'under seige'
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Dark Helmet (profile), 27 May 2011 @ 7:34am

Re: Or trademark Seal team 5, from under seige.
"but they might get Steven Seagull after you"

Meh, no biggie. I hear if you just feed a couple of alka-seltzers to him, he 'splodes.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 May 2011 @ 8:07am

Re: Re:
We will have to agree to disagree.

Frankly, I had expected you to comment on what the USN is/was attempting to do. The USG, and particularly the military, does not have any competitors in the classic sense of the word, except, perhaps, internal competition such as aviation within each of the services. The same is true of virtually every other function within the federal government. If the USN response is proper under law, then why not have other federal groups/agencies/etc. trademark their logos, slogans, and other source identifying indicia?
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anymouse (profile), 27 May 2011 @ 10:33am

Sounds like a Government Make Work program...
So now every Government Agency is supposed to waste time, effort, and money to 'trademark', 'copyright' and 'patent' their agencies name to protect it?

I can see the reasoning, this will provide much work for all those bored government employees when they aren't too busy spying on models or listening in on private conversations.

It would only take one employee a couple hours to propose an update that said.... "Government Agencies, Names, Acronyms, Internal Designations, and any related nomenclature are not subject to Trademark, Copyright, or Patenting".

Many hours of useless work for many government workers compared to a few hours for one worker..... You know which one they are going to go with
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Dementia (profile), 27 May 2011 @ 11:53am

Re:
Umm, NAVY Seals, not Marine Seals. Marines have Force Recon. Army has Special Forces, Ranges, and Delta Force, and the Airforce has Combat Controllers and Pararescue. Any other questions about special ops?
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abc gum, 27 May 2011 @ 5:00pm

Re: Re:
Ok - why do they not get to use their own mark?
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