Trouble is brewing for producer deadmau5 once again.
Last year, deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman applied to trademark his signature mouse head logo aka mau5head through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. However, giant corporation Disney revealed that it was looking into deadmau5’s attempt to trademark the iconic mouse head as it bore a striking resemblance to Mickey Mouse. See, the mau5head that deadmau5 was trying to register is a mouse head with white eyes, giant ears, and mouth, which has been his signature for years. It was used on his album artworks as far back as 2005:
Not only that, the iconic mau5head has also been used as part of a few merchandising campaigns. One such campaign is deadmau5’s collaboration with NEFF in 2012 to launch a clothing line named, “Neffmau5“. The clothing line combines he NEFF insignia with the mau5head.
And now, after months of deliberation by Disney, TMZ is reporting that Disney will be taking legal action against deadmau5 as they firmly believe that the mau5head logo that deadmau5 is trying to trademark is too similar to their iconic Mickey Mouse. They also believe that the similarity can mislead consumers and of course it doesn’t help that deadmau5 has always been a controversial producer (read: Twitter rants and such) while Disney has always positioned themselves to be entirely family-friendly.
According to TMZ, “In the docs, Disney states its ears have been a thing for more than 60 years, and says granting Deadmau5 the trademark would damage its business in the U.S. and around the world.” Dina LaPolt, deadmau5’s attorney, told TMZ that the producer already has a trademark on his mouse head in more than 30 countries, including Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
As expected, deadmau5 isn’t pleased. Upon hearing the news, he took to Twitter (where else?) to say:
Well, we’d like to see how this one will turn out.
More to come as the story unfolds.
(Source)
