Disney Officially Seeks To Block Deadmau5's Trademark Claim
from the because-you-might-confuse-an-electronic-musician-with-a-cartoon-mouse dept
Apparently it's a big deadmau5 day on Techdirt. Not only do we have the story of Ferrari looking into blocking the sale of his Purrari, Disney is officially opposing his attempt to trademark his logo mousehead, which he famously wears in concert. Deadmau5 responded to this by saying "lawyer up mickey" though we're pretty sure that Mickey's been quite "lawyered up" for a long, long, long time. He further noted:
Disney thinks you might confuse an established electronic musician / performer with a cartoon mouse. That's how stupid they think you are.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) September 3, 2014
Of course, it's not really a big deal if Disney succeeds here. All it would do is block Deadmau5 from having a registered trademark on the design, but that's neither necessary nor required. The real question is if Disney would go even further and attempt to block Deadmau5 from continuing to use the design. That... would be a lot more questionable.
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Filed Under: deadmau5, likelihood of confusion, mouse ears, trademark
Companies: disney
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It actually reminds me more of the robot from Heavy Metal. Maybe there's a trademark claim there. Does Disney own Heavy Metal?
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public domain talk belongs to the copyright side of things, this is a trademark dispute.
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By the way I always thought deadmau5's hat was related to Mickey, similar to Mortimer the Mouse in Bloom County -- an intentional jab at Disney.
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Disney should win this case hands down, and then very likely the dead rodent will be forced to change his look entirely to avoid future infringement on the mark. I suspect that is exactly what he wants.
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They are obviously ripping off from the public domain and closely resembles a mouse, a dog, a duck, and so forth. Deadmau5 has the privilege to create a trademark out of something even if it closely resembles someone elses IP so long as it cannot be confused with that someone elses IP.
That is the law, unfortunately too many stupid people like you (judges included) roam the earth and are dumb enough to think and believe the way you do, despite what the law clearly points out.
Have you received your sheeple money from Disney yet? if not... well, at least a smart person would obtain some compensation for selling their soul but not you huh?
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Show my 5 year old the dead rodent trademark attempt, and he says "Mickey Mouse". If a 5 year old can see it, then it's pretty freaking obvious.
Have you received your sheeple money from Disney yet?
I was treating you like a normal person until I got there. Then I figured out you are just a troll. Shoo troll!
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And that folks is why we let 5 year olds decide obviousness of trademarks, when their bedtime is going to be, how much ice cream they are going to eat for dinner, when to bathe, change clothes, take medicine, drive, operate heavy machinery, vote, control major air traffic control routes, invade foreign countries in the name of freedom, and when to launch nuclear weapons... oh, wait, we don't.
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Determining whether a particular expression is trademarkable is probably similar to determining whether this is art. But mostly in that people will disagree.
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Asking a 5 year old is also a moot point. All the presentation of the question does is establish to him that you're asking him a question that he has the contextual knowledge to understand. I can hold up a yellow rectangular sponge to a kid - if he says "Spongebob" does that suddenly mean trademark infringement?
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Your 5 year old would say it's Mickey Mouse because they've never in their life had anything else to compare it to. At 5 & 6, mine were pretty aware of the difference immediately.
The fact is, he's not trying to make money from 5 year old kids or adults by posing as Mickey Mouse. With that said, he's going to lose. He's not going to lose because it's that close to the forsaken Mickey Mouse Disney shits, but because the Jury and Judge has had Disney engraved in their brains all their life, and they're oblivious to anything outside of their own fucking bubble.
"HEY... there's a quarter and 2 pennies! EEETs MICKEY MOUSE!! DURR HURRRRR".
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A case of winning the battle but losing the war as it were.
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I don't think deadmau5 ever cared about, let alone parodied, Disney. His logo looks (to me) more like a stylised mouse head that happens to resemble the Disney logo than a modified version of Disney's logo. Then again, I also think that unrelated use should be just as protected as parody use though, so what do I know?
I do agree however that deadmau5 attempting to trademark his logo is a completely different situation than him just using his logo, regardless of intent. At that point, it's not very surprising at all that Disney would attempt to block the registration of a trademark similar to their own.
It's just as obvious as ignoring someone who is doing something similar to something you've patented, but deciding to step in when they try to patent it themself. Isn't it?
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And even if he got inspired by Mickey again, why should Disney be the only one that can use a mouse silhouette in one of their brands? Both drawings are clearly different.
Check the logos: http://www.globaldanceelectronichq.com/2014/04/deadmau5s-attempt-to-trademark-logo.html
I honestly don't see any similarities other than being mouses. And Mickey being uglier.
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*facepalm*
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The Spoils
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Disney ran out of clock.
The clock struck 10,
The Deadmau5 just grinned ,
Hickety, dickety, dock.
If it looks like a micky mouse is probably mighty mouse.
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Huh
I mean, calling those things "mouse ears" is way inaccurate since they are not anything like the ears of even a wood mouse.
I mean they look more like Gertrude DuPont's hair style.
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Disney is satan
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Re: Disney is satan
If you have sources to back that up, you might consider updating Wikipedia, because that isn't what the entry for Pocahontas says.
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One thing that's for certain is that Disney's Pocahantas is thoroughly sanitized and bears almost no resemblance to the actual history. For one thing, Pocahantas was 10 years old when she and John Smith first met, and was little older than that when he was having sex with her.
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What in the world are you talking about? Did you see "Wikipedia" and think "Rush Limbaugh"? Or is anyone who questions something you said automatically a right wing Rush Limbaugh follower? Either way that must really get in the way of having a reasonable discussion.
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Oh well that makes it all better.
/sarcasm
That reminds of this gem though from my favorite conservative TV personality:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/07/colbert-apparently-kid-hannity_n_5658115.html
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If forced to change easy solution
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