Photo retrieved from: http://thissongissick.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Disney-Deadmau5.png
Summary
From the latest CBC News article, “Deadmau5, Disney face off over “mouse ears” logo”, posted by Lauren O’Neil on September 4 2014, it can be seen that Canadian born Disc Jockey, Deadmau5, well known for his industrious style of spinning Electronic Dance Music has filed for his mouse-head mask to be trademarked in the United States. A 171 page dispute has been filed in regards to the consideration of Deadmau5’s trademark request by Disney. Disney explaining that allowing the trademark would result in reputational risk for the business globally (O’Neil, 2014). Deadmau5 has spoken out about this challenge, and will proceed in fighting for the trademark through legal channels, “Lawyer up, Mickey.” he said (O’Neil, 2014). The mouse head mask “is already a registered in 30 countries, including U.K., Ireland, Germany, France, Australia, and Japan” (O’Neil, 2014). Deadmau5’s counsel representative, Dina LaPolt does not understand why Disney is challenging the mouse-head as of now. It seems as if Disney is trying to bully Deadmau5 from using his signature attribute.
Opinion
In our opinion, we believe that the Disney mouse ears logo and Deadmau5’ mouse-head share a striking resemblance to each other. We believe that the challenge that Disney is imposing is understandable, and Deadmau5 should not patent his trademark in The United States. The reasons why we feel that Deadmau5 should not win this legal disagreement is because Disney is a multibillion dollar corporation that has built its foundations worldwide and is still growing. Whereas, Deadmau5 has recently expanded his image in the past ten years. Also, Disney appeals to a wider range of audiences, from toddlers to seniors, Disney has touched many people. On the contrary, Deadmau5 appeals to only a specific type of audience such as young Electronic Dance Music listeners. In an unformulated biased opinion, it may also seem as if the situation was where Deadma5 was to win, there may be a reputational risk to Disney (being a U.S. based company) losing its reserved trademark to a single Canadian Disc Jockey. We believe these differences account to the amount of support each party will get. In the end we can almost assure that the weight in argument that Disney brings will contribute to their victory.
Questions/Feedback
1) Why is Disney lashing out at Deadmau5 for his mouse-head mask as of now?
2) Would Deadmau5 benefit a possible partnership with Disney instead?
3) Would a loss for Disney ruin its overall reputation?
References
O’Neil, L. (2014, September, 04). Deadmau5, Disney face off over “mouse ears” logo. CBC News. Retrieved on September 12, 2014, from http://www.cbc.ca/newsblog/yourcommunity/2014/09/deadmau5-disney-face-off-over-mouse-ears-logo.html
