Watch Out Mommar, Mickey Mouse may be gunning for you

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/25/navy-seals-fights-mickey-mouse-trademark/


"On May 3, just two days after Usama bin Laden was killed in a raid on the Al Qaeda leader’s Pakistan compound, Disney filed trademark applications to use the name "SEAL Team 6" on everything from entertainment, toys, video games, clothing, footwear -- even Christmas ornaments and snow globes."

This just shows how screwed up out IP laws are. The idea that there is enough of a chance of this succeeding that Disney even bothered to file for the trademark is ridiculous. It is absolutely and abundantly clear that Disney will be attempting to leverage the already existing reputation of the actual Seal Teams to sell these products without the actual members of the seal teams or the US Navy who sponsors them getting any credit or profit.

The proper response at the patent and trade mark office to this should be a hearty laugh followed immediately by a denial, however under current law that so favors large corporations they have a very real chance of winning their claim and getting the trademark which would mean that the Navy couldn't even use the name in their recruiting ads without paying tribute to Disney.

Comments

[tridus.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This is an easily accessable version of the problem, but it goes well beyond this. The entire collection of copyright/patent/trademark law is a giant mess created by lobbyists and a Congress that just buys whatever they're selling.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

*waves his little PirateBay flag**

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

GO PIRATPARTIET!!!

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

That's an actual political party in Sweden, right?

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Ten days after that, the Navy put in a trademark application for “SEAL Team." The Navy's application, along with the rights that it already has to the trademark “Navy SEALs,” could help block approval for Disney’s request...Disney may get approval, but what’s more likely to happen, says University of Minnesota Law professor William McGeveran, is that Disney and the Navy will reach some kind of mutually beneficial agreement. Law enforcement agencies, such as the New York City Police Department, make such arrangements, lending out their trademark or cars, in exchange for compensation or script approval, Mr. McGeveran says. He could imagine that Disney might want to make a movie or TV show based on SEAL Team 6 and would strike some kind of deal with the Navy.

Source. (http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0519/Who-owns-SEAL-Team-6)

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Right, everything is going exactly as it should.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

What's kind of stunning about this, aside from the moral injustice of this being yet another law that grants corporations more legal protections than actual human beings, is that the corporations who are the most gung-ho about securing copyrights and trademarks on everything, as well as preserving them into eternity, seem not to get that, in a post-Internet era, trying to protect their brands forever, literally, is essentially The New Prohibition, in that it's objectively unenforceable and everyone hates it except for the very small cadre of folks whose interests it serves.

The only moral or economic justification for such laws is if they reward people for CREATING things, by ensuring that those creations can't just be ripped off by anyone and everyone else, to the point that there's no incentive left to create, but if and when Disney can acquire trademark on a branch of the United States military, without those service members seeing dime one of the profits hat will be made? Then, much like Jack Kirby and Bill Finger getting screwed out of their proper rewards, that instead PUNISHES those individuals for doing THE ACTUAL WORK, while rewarding corporations who should, by all rights, be held in contempt as being even worse than the "parasites" that Ayn Rand railed against in her shitty fanfic. Then again, Disney made most of its classic movies by waiting for other people's stories to pass into the public domain, so I shouldn't be surprised.

[prisoner--24601.livejournal.com]

Then again, Disney made most of its classic movies by waiting for other people's stories to pass into the public domain, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Yeah that's the thing that really kills me about Disney of all companies pushing these horrible IP and trademark laws. If there is one freaking corporation out there that has made a fortune off of other people's creative work, it's the freaking Mouse House.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Oh I fully expect that Disney will eventually get what they want and sign a licensing deal with the Navy for use of the name, there is too much money to be potentially made for both of them to not do it. The problem is that the environment is so favorable towards big business that had someone at Fox news not tipped off the Navy first it is likely this would have been granted with a rubber stamp and there is no legitimate reason Disney should be able to get a trademark on a the name of a military unit that has long existed

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I doubt this would pass muster at the TRO, if they're actually paying attention. This is a descriptive mark, and Disney hasn't established a secondary meaning in the mark, so the should be facially disqualified from registering it. Of course, that would require the regulator to be doing a good job of screening marks.

I do agree that TMs, in particular, shouldn't be treated as property. They should be dealt with mostly on unfair competition lines, not via assigning some inherent value to the mark itself and protecting that.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

P.S.

Interesting tidbit: it was the George Gershwin estate, along with Disney, that had the copyright laws changed a few years ago. Several of the larger and more famous Gershwin pieces were about to go into public domain, when the estate used its considerable influence to get the law changed.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The Gershwin estate started their quest for the copyright changes way back in the late 1980s, they also were able to get other big music names to join in (I think the R & H estates were worried about some of the earlier stuff going PD).

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I don't mind it when things like this happen as it makes my piracy feel moral.