Slashdot Mirror
Disney Seeks Trademark On 'Seal Team 6'
The Grim Reefer2 writes "MediaBistro has learned that the Walt Disney Company has applied for a trademark on the phrase 'Seal Team 6,' the name of the special forces unit that killed the world's most wanted man. Disney now owns the exclusive rights to put Seal Team 6 on 'clothing, footwear, headwear, toys, games and entertainment and education services.' Disney made the move only two days after bin Laden's death was announced."
According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, "this is not the first time a company has trademarked SEAL Team 6. Previous owner NovaLogic, Inc., abandoned two associated trademarks in 2006. Those trademarks focused on computer and video gaming."
They better be MADE in the USA!!!!
The Navy's team is Seal Team Six.
But Disney had better not piss off its founder and namer Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko, that's one bad ass mutherfucker
Can we just take a can of RAID (or a bat) to these guys like we would any other pest?
Technically, there is no current unit called "SEAL Team 6". The unit formerly known by that name is now the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, AKA DEVGRU. Further, as DEVGRU is a Tier One Special Operations Force (the other one being Delta Force), they may not officially exist, in that no official records of them are kept. Finally, some sources are saying that the unit has been yet again renamed, this time to something classified. Thus, Disney (and anyone else, probably) could register a trademark on the name, and DoD wouldn't object (as they seem surprisingly versed in the Streisand Effect).
It ceased to exist 1984ish I believe.
How far can that go? Can they get "101st Airborne"? How about "U.S. Army"? Seems pretty slippery...
actually, the Disney capability of running trademarks and copyrights forever, and purchasing laws to enable this is standard slashdot fare.
The US Navy has the rights to the name. Did they sell the rights to Disney?
I cannot help but feel that inviting the possibility of retribution over a matter of intellectual property from a Navy SEALS unit, however remote, should be cause for caution.
I’m also somewhat surprised that a global firm with such an obsession for it’s public image as Disney would do something as unilaterally endorsing as promoting a single nation’s military. Surely some marketer in their ranks is concerned this will affect sales of Mickey Mouse in Saudi Arabia?!
"Place me in the company of those who seek Truth, but deliver me from those who believe to have found it."
Yes... and doesn’t it amuse you that somewhere in their ranks, there’s a marketer stewing in anger that his dire warnings of the effect this might have on Mickey Mouse sales in Saudi Arabia have gone unheeded?
"Place me in the company of those who seek Truth, but deliver me from those who believe to have found it."
What?
Are they planning some sort of characters involving a team of Aquatic Mammals?
But remind me again .. who are the people with the clandenstine hit teams that can go anywhere in the world and visit not-nice-things on anyone?
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Unless a secret agreement was made with Roy Disney after 9/11 to allow Seal Team 6 to undertake overseas kill missions w/o Mouse approval.
anyone who spends enough time on wikipedia will understand that most products of the US govt are public domain under copyright law. im thinking that trying to trademark a US government moniker is going to run right into that issue of IP Law. taxpayers are who put up the money for government entities to exist and thus theoretically they (the public) own it.
What do you expect from a company who's mascot's a fucking rat?
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
AFAIK, "SEAL Team 6" is already in use. It's the name of one of the character models you can be in Counter-Strike: Source.
So, now Penthouse is going to have to make a movie called "Seal Team Sex". Really Disney? Can't we stick to mermaid porn?
The possibilities for creative mayhem with this are just delightful! I hope Charlie Sheen gets to voice Donald Duck in the animated movie! M...I....C.... "Wax you real soon" K... E....Y... "Why, because you're one dead Taliban!" M.....O....U.....S.....E.....!!!!! Got to go, off to think up radio call signs for Goofy, Minnie and Uncle Scrooge.
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
This is clearly appropriate for Slashdot since it's an intellectual property thing. And why on Earth would you think military stories have a place on Slashdot? Yikes.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
I can't even imagine the kind of crap Disney would pull with "Seal Team 6"
/announcer voice
"When the a cute little Eskimo boy's village is threatened by an evil (russian) mastermind threatening to destroy the Arctic with his oil drilling, the boy finds help the only way he knows how... *cue music and seal sounds* A grand adventure. A story of companionship and peril. Walt Disney Pictures in cooperation with the United States Navy presents: Seal Team 6"
Send Seal Team 6 'round to Disney to have a bit of a chat about it. I'm sure that'd sort it RIGHT out.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
This reminds me.
Like a toupee on a fading fame,
Final whistle in a losing game,
Thick lipstick on a five year old girl,
Makes you think that’s it’s a plastic world.
Plastic world were all plastic too,
Just a couple of different faces in a dead-mans queue
The world is turning Disney and there’s nothing you can do,
You’re trying to walk like giants but your wearing Pluto’sshoes.
And the answers fall easier from the barrel of a gun,
Than it does from the lips of the beautiful and the dumb.
The world won’t end in darkness it’ll end in family fun,
With Coca-Cola clouds behind a Big-Mac sun.
Howling scream in a church asleep,
Rusting bicycle in the ocean deep,
Like an earring on a newly born,
Strong perfume on a winters morn.
The world is perfumed and were perfumed as well,
Petals from a flower that blossomed in hell.
You can’t breathe the air through the thickness of the smell,
And you can’t see the hair through the grease or the gel.
And the answer falls easier from the barrel of a gun,
Than it does from the lips of the beautiful and the dumb.
The world won’t end in darkness it’ll end in family fun,
With Coca-Cola clouds behind a Big-Mac sun.
You guys do know that the Walt Disney Company encompasses far more than just things labeled Disney, and not all of those endeavors are G-rated, right?
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I f you wanted rid of Osama bin Laden, then do it properly. "Accidentally killed"? "Buried at sea"? Yeah, right. You didn't think that maybe - just, *maybe* - it might have been a good idea to do it properly, have some proper justice, and close the book finally on the guy?
You fucked up, America, and no amount of shouting and chest-beating is going to fix it. You shouldn't be proud of it. Ask the Israelis why.
I'm curious as to what your idea of "do it properly" was?
"You shouldn't be proud of it. Ask the Israelis why."
What the do the Israelis know about proper behavior ?
They deserve to be cut loose from US support, period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie
or you can abide by the rules of civil justice
you can't have it both ways
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Disney's entire business plan has been based on taking other people's work/ideas/creations and capitalizing on them for their own profit. They've been that way since the beginning. (Go ahead, go count all the original ideas Disney itself has ever had. I'll wait.)
So that being said, I can't say I'm surprised by this, although I do think this is a new low (based on the obvious bin Laden connection), even for them.
I can see people being gung-ho and wanting to wear "official" SEAL Team 6 clothing with Disney's Princess Castle in the background, but what's up with "education services"?
copyrighting something that already exists as an entity wholly separate and apart from the holder of the copyright.
Neat.
So I suppose someone could file a copyright on "FBI"? Or "POTUS"? And that would fly?
Nothing broken here, nope, nothing at all.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
If anyone is entitled to the name, it's Dick Marcinko. He was the first commanding officer of the team he named SEAL Team 6. (There were only two teams at the time; naming it 6 was a deception.) After he left the Navy, he wrote a number of novels about SEAL-type exploits.
Disney is way out of line here.
Seal Team Six
We are no Micky Mouse operation!
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'm curious as to what your idea of "do it properly" was?
IMO: Even the Nazis got the Nuremberg Trials. Granted several committed suicide beforehand, but the trials still happened.
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
actually, the Disney capability of running trademarks and copyrights forever, and purchasing laws to enable this is standard slashdot fare.
Indeed, Disney's well known from taking from the public domain only to permanently copyright the result so as to never give back.
Trademarking "Seal Team Six" is just more of the same, but easier for the hoi polloi to identify as dirty pool.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
A company shouldn't be able to obtain a trademark on something like this. Nor should an individual, for that matter.
It's not about pride, it's about cashing in, or preventing a rival from cashing in, or both. We saw that last week when Karl Rove went on the air criticizing Obama for taking credit for the work of the SEALs, then going on to brag that he had a "personal relationship" (yuck) with some members of SEAL Team Six. Disney is just as unseemly but predictable here.
In any case, I haven't heard anybody official claim Osama was "accidentally killed". Nor have I seen any explanation of the orders and rules of engagement the commando team was operating under. Nor have we any idea whether the man who shot Osama was following those orders. Not that orders excuse anything, but they can shed light on a thing. For example, if the orders were, "kill, even if he surrenders," then I think everyone involved would be guilty of murder. But we have no reason to believe that. I do think the orders with respect to killing Osama should be made public; the fact that they haven't make me think that either (a) they would cause diplomatic or political problems or (b) they weren't followed correctly but nobody wants to deal with that.
The SEAL who shot certainly showed presence of mind in wounding Osama's wife rather than killing her, but I wouldn't ask anyone to put his life at risk for Osama, no matter how small that risk was. Not unless he had put himself in our custody. So if the orders came down to "... if he doesn't surrender immediately, shoot him," I'd be completely OK with that.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Rachel Corrie was a "useful idiot" for the Palestinians and radical Islam who wish to commit genocide against the Jews and carry on Hitler's dream of completely wiping out the Jewish people.
She might as well have been wearing an "American Dupes Support Auschwitz" T-shirt.
She wasn't killed by Israelis. She was killed by her own stupidity & ideological blindness
The Arab countries could have given the Palestinians their own land at any time before Israel was created. They told the Palestinians to get stuffed. But now that there are *gasp* Jews(!!) there, they can't race to support the Palestinians fast enough.
The Palestinians need to STFU before the Israelis decide that they'd rather deal with the ruckus caused by them coming in with tanks, troops, and phalanxes of giant bulldozers and push everything in Gaza and the West Bank into the sea. Frankly, I'd cheer the Israelis on.
Because there's some Trek fans who had designed a fanon Maquis Seal Team 6 logo that (inadvertently) appeared on German TV before Disney got their grubby rat paws on anything related.
First of all, capture. Not kill.
Second, extraction to undisclosed location.
Third, trial
Fourth, execution if convicted
Fifth, burial at sea
Everything videotaped, nothing procedural hidden.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Since there is standard equipment with video recording for military units, I'd have had those issued, rather than choosing to purposefully have no video of any of the operation.
I'd have notified our allies that to send over a representative so that someone could have independently verified the identity.
I'd have had some Arabic observers around for oversight, and I would have let them watch the live video feeds and verify the identity of the body.
Instead, there was no identification of the body, no report of how he died, no body to have anyone else examine, no stored samples of DNA, no fingerprint cards taken at the time of death, and no proof that anything the US has said regarding the operation is true. And there were lots of ways to fix that and the US chose to do none of them.
Learn to love Alaska
Tell you what Disney, when your executives are ready to put their lives on the line to kill terrorists, then you can have a trademark for whatever you call your elite unit. Unti then, just stick to making cartoons and mind your own business.
Starring Justin Bieber as Private Pyle and Zac Efron as Sergeant Carter!
When you think of brains splattering against the wall, think of Disney!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Rachel Corrie was a "useful idiot" for the Palestinians and radical Islam who wish to commit genocide against the Jews and carry on Hitler's dream of completely wiping out the Jewish people.
Yeah, far too many people are unaware that much of the Muslim/Arabic world were allies of Hitler during WW2, due in large part to their shared hatred of and desire to wipe out the Jewish people.
Look up Amin Al Husseini. The Palestinians are simply a cat's paw for Muslim Arabs to attempt to finish the work they and Hitler started in WW2.
I'm waiting for the Liberal/Progressive Western MSM to fire up the propaganda-machine to start spreading the "Gee, Hitler wasn't such a bad guy...he was just a misunderstood victim of Western Zionist propaganda" lies.
So they run a bulldozer and someone purposefully hiding gets run over, and that's bad? It was a very slow bulldozer heading in a straight line that she sat there and waited for it to kill her. Sounds more like suicide than an international incident to me. They tried 8 times to clear the suicidal rich white Americans out of the area (very far from the white suburbia they grew up in and apparently hated so much they'd rather go to the middle east to commit suicide). She purposefully concealed herself so as not to be removed. And was then run over as she sat in the path of a slow moving bulldozer traveling in a straight line.
Sounds more like an entry for the Darwin Awards than anything that should affect US policy. Or does it not matter when they kill Palestinians, but one cute white American girl and we should go nuts?
Learn to love Alaska
What I'd like to know is: How many comedians have already made references to "The US Navy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney, Inc." and other similar jokes?
I'll also be looking for the little "TM" superscripts in news stories about the Seals, complete with footnotes like the above.
Of course, it wouldn't be the first time that people made such jokes. Describing the US Congress as a subsidiary of Such-&-Such Corp goes back a long way ...
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
How can disney trademark an existing, already established name?
Its like disney trademarking the phrase "President of the United States"
What gives Disney the right to be able to trademark something that is OWNED by the US government and its people?
Disney sold Miramax back to the Weinsteins (with the help of a bunch of VCs) in 2010.
Sounds more like an entry for the Darwin Awards than anything that should affect US policy. Or does it not matter when they kill Palestinians, but one cute white American girl and we should go nuts?
Oh no, not at all.
The world gets it's collective panties all in a knot when a Palestinian launching rockets at civilians or a Liberal/Progressive American idiot supporting them gets killed.
Israeli families and children being murdered is OK however, no matter the means or circumstances.
Frankly, I'm amazed the Israelis have shown the restraint they have by not completely and utterly wiping out the West Bank & Gaza.
How do you think that'd work out if the Israeli/Palestinian roles were reversed? I'd be betting there would be a Wiki entry for the "Second Holocaust".
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
a fifth sequel to their yet-to-be-released aquatic mammal basketball flick.
Disney will now be associated with para-military group and armament.
Kids will love their M16 with the Disney logo on it!
And for girls, there is still the pink flamethrower.
You gain copyright when you create something that counts as a work of art. You gain trademark when you announce that you (might) intend to create a product/productline/etc. relevant to some name, want exclusive rights to do so and are willing to pay the assosciated fees. You don't need to invent something in order to trademark it.
That said, I doubt this trademark would hold in court. Even if you own a trademark, you lose it when enough people begin associating it with the type of product in general, not just your company (see "aspirin"). I think that it would be easy enough to prove that most people assosciate Seal Team 6 with something entirely else than any Disney product if it would ever be taken to court. At least, that's the case at the moment. If disney makes a movie called Seal Team 6, it's entirely reasonable that others won't be allowed to make a movie under that name or sell merchandise relevant to that movie...
Since there is standard equipment with video recording for military units, I'd have had those issued, rather than choosing to purposefully have no video of any of the operation.
I've read any number of news stories that claimed the Seals had the video equipment and it was running. Dunno whether this is true of not, of course, since I wasn't there. But a lot of news people seem to believe that there are videos of much of the assassination. If so, they might be declassified in 20 or 30 years ...
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
New from Disney, a comedy film for the whole family!
SEAL TEAM 6: Since his father's death, Josh Framm has become increasingly withdrawn. Even playing army, once his passion, scarcely seems to matter. His worried mom moves the family to a small town near in Alaska, hoping that a fresh start will revive Josh. But he doesn't fit in well at military school, and his unfocused attitude pull's his unit's ranking down. Until he finds Buddy, an abandoned harbor seal who can snipe a penguin off an iceberg from 2000 feet with an MK11, better than any wild seal has a right to. With Buddy at his side, Josh finds the courage to come out of his shell around othe...r kids. Buddy becomes the school mascot and inspired by the seadog, the kids come together into a cohesive, well-oiled unit. But everything comes crashing down when Buddy's owner, a nasty party clown named Osama Bin Laden, shows up to claim his seal...
>"When the a cute little Eskimo boy's village is threatened by an evil (russian) mastermind threatening to destroy the Arctic with his oil drilling, the boy finds help the only way he knows how... *cue music and seal sounds* A grand adventure. A story of companionship and peril. Walt Disney Pictures in cooperation with the United States Navy presents: Seal Team 6"
Wouldn't that be Seal Team Two? Aren't they the ones that do Arctic warfare?
disney lawyers negotiating with the real seal team six would make a great 15 sec of reality tv
Strange. For some reason, the trademark on Osama Team 1 is still available.
is it far fetched to think that there might just be people working for Disney that want to make it so no one else can use the name Seal Team 6? Maybe they just want to own the rights and never use them?
What changes will there be to the shooting of Osama in the Disney version? Will they turn the guns into walkee-talkees or something?
Lets just have sponsors for the military now. We can have our troops wear corporate emblems. It should have been the Pepsi team that got him, right? Or do you think that the Chevy team should have? (whacking bin laden)
Take the Red Pill.
Indeed, Disney's well known from taking from the public domain only to permanently copyright the result so as to never give back.
This is nonsense.
Search IMDB for a title like Snow White or Cinderella and you will typically find one hundred or so variations on a theme -
dating back to the nickelodeon days of 1903.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella musical produced for television in 1957. The Jim Henson version from 1970. Cinderella
If you are any damn good at all you don't sit there whining that Disney got there first - he didn't - or that Disney did it better -
which is why you need his art, script, voices and music.
But the central actor didn't have a trial, and the disposal of his body is even more shrouded in mystery than bin Laden's. The Soviets intentionally muddied the waters of what happened to El Nazi Numero Uno for the same reason the Yank's dumped bin Laden over the side of a ship, because they wanted to make sure that there was no place, no remaining physical presence for supporters to rally around.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
because nerds like reading about technical things, and military news is almost always highly technical?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
http://sealteamsix.net/ has been around since 2003... what if they made shirts?
so it disappeared into the toothy jowels of rabid rats caged upon its face!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
Well known dirtbags, not to be trusted.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Seriously, what exactly does Disney have a need whatsoever with a name like that?
I can hear the storyline now (cue Duke Nukem voice)..."Six Dwarfs...they used to be seven, until one of their own was murdered by the wicked witch...Together, they will avenge their brothers death. They are...Seal Team Six."
Hey, gotta re-write Snow White in SOME way that appeases the MMORPG generation...
Disney's business model is more dependent on legal chicanery and blatant fraud than SCO. I knew some of their employees back in the '90s and they were all fucked over as well. You'd think their management were Scientologists or something.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Anyone not convinced of your Jewishness need only look to your sig.
Enjoy your weekend.
[sarc]
Jesse Jackson, is that you?
A fine example of tolerance, open-mindedness, and a non-bigoted world view.
[/sarc]
One need not be Jewish to know that Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty and given more people a higher standard of living than any other system ever tried. Even China has been forced to acknowledge that fact. One also need not be Jewish to recognize an ignorant bigot. You must be one of the "enlightened, open-minded, and tolerant" Liberal/Progressives.
I'll say a prayer for you that you may become a better, less hateful & bigoted person.
BTW, I'm not Jewish. I'm intellectually honest. I *have* been called a "mensch" a time or two by those who are Jewish, though. :)
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
There is no SEAL team six to have a copyright violated.
The "creator" of the team? guess what govt property either way, and they disavow. what makes you think the "creator" would argue...
It was a smart move, to copyright a unique phrase ... the company is doing right by its shareholders.
you do know corporations make profits at all cost, even profit? and if they are people would be sociopathic murderers?
k then
AFAIK, funny doesn't affect karma, so if it's both (bravo!) then I'd lean toward insightful, unless it's posted AC.
...the Walt Disney Company has applied for a trademark on the phrase 'Seal Team 6.... Disney now owns the exclusive rights...
Well, which is it?
I can't believe there aren't videos. However, the official statement is that there are no videos, not that there may be some but that information is classified. Something being classified doesn't ession give the right to lie about it. If Congress were to have a session about it and swear someone in under oath and they knew there were classified videos, they'd be committing a crime to not answer "yes, but they are classified" when asked about them.
So, either the US is incompetent in not taking videos, or the US is a liar for not telling us about them, even if they weren't released. Either way a large amount of incompetence was displayed by those involved (not the guys doing the actual ground work, but just about everyone else even tangentially involved).
Learn to love Alaska
Can I just apply for a trademark on every combination of every possible word and get it over with? It is rediculous people are allowed to do this.
This is nonsense.
Search IMDB for a title like Snow White or Cinderella and you will typically find one hundred or so variations on a theme -
No you are just stupidly ignorant.
Pinnochio the book - published in 1883, copyright expires 1939, Disney releases movie in 1940.
The Reluctant Dragon - Published 1898. Grahame was a British author so he didn't get U.S. copyright protection.
Wind in the Willows - Published 1908. Grahame was a British author so he didn't get U.S. copyright protection.
The Sword and the Rose (1953) - Based on When Knighthood Was in Flower published in 1898. Would have entered the public domain in either 1926 or 1954. A 1961 study showed that only 7% of books sought copyright extensions. Considering the popularity of the book there's a good chance it was extended. Perhaps that's why Disney filmed and originally published The Sword and the Rose in the U.K. It was published in the U.S. in 1956.
The Jungle Book - Published in 1894. Would have entered the public domain no later than 1940.
--
Just a short list of examples of Disney taking from the public domain but not contributing back.
(*) The USA is the most militarized country in the first world.
i dunno. i'm not american but i like reading about us military tech.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Double Tap. Burial at Sea. Any questions?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/07/oliver-stone-hitler-israel-chavez.html
Of course there's (potentially very lucrative) porn! Why do you think, Disney bought the rights to "Seal Team 6"?
Before Disney does that as well....
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
I would have thought that military unit designations are basically government property and can be used by anyone under the first amendment. For example, anyone can make reproductions of the Statue of Liberty, the American Flag, etc. If Disney can trademark a unit designation, then why don't they just trademark the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. It would piss a lot of unit coffee mess officers off when they have to buy their fund raising t-shirts from the Disney Corporation though. Maybe Disney should also trademark all of the national landmarks, national parks, the Liberty Bell, etc.
"This is nonsense."
This is my understanding of the situation, and if I'm wrong, someone will correct me:
Every time Steamboat Willy would enter the public domain, Disney lobbies and procures a copyright extension. As a result, copyrighted works as a whole constitute a larger body of work relative to the public domain, since everything published since Steamboat Willy has its copyright protection prolonged when the copyright extensions are passed.
If the public domain is the village well, Disney is capping it and charging for water in collectible bottles.
You'll have to move your indignant rage to a different issue. I have every confidence that you will find one promptly.
I'd have had some Arabic observers around for oversight, and I would have let them watch the live video feeds and verify the identity of the body.
Movie night at the white house! Popcorn provided, bring your own baklava.
"you must compensate us for our intellectual property".
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
When my trademark of "Taliban" and "Al Queda" is final, I think our action figures might have to see each other in court.
"He's using a quantum encryption scheme! That'll take hours to break!"
I don't think of some mickey mouse group of people; just a thought.
so...are we going to hold SS Wiking
My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
Did someone say "lebensraum"?
No really, it is this kind of nationalist posturing that defined the fascist movements, but i guess its not ethnics cleansing if the people that lives there REALLY deserves it!
My -1 Troll is actually a +1 funny. And my -1 flame is actually a +1 insightfull.
Nuke them form orbit?
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
To let Disney know if you agree or disagree with this action, here's the gentlemen who filed the trademark claim: charles.j.steinberg@disney.com
Then my indignation is over the initial release stating there was no video.
At this point, the US have proven themselves liars about what happened. So how can we believe any one part (that they verified it was Osama) when they also released that they had no video of the incident (later contradicted by this unnamed "official").
Learn to love Alaska
Ok... what do you think will happen if you or I start using the name "Seal Team 6" in commerce today or on Monday; for a line of T-shirts, and maybe a 30 second Youtube video clip and 30-second for pay blurb, before Disney can?
If you do pull it off that fast, and Disney subsequently comes out with a line of T-shirts, then you will have a trademark infringement case against Disney.
Assuming Disney hasn't used it in commerce yet. Will they withdraw their application? Will the PTO refuse such a large corporation with such highly paid lobbiests, and probably no qualms against pushing a little money under the table? For some reason, I doubt that.
If you actually file a trademark application showing the mark as already used in commerce, then they will automatically not get that trademark--big corporation or not. Legally trademarks come into existence by their use--registration does not actually create a mark, it's just a system of convenience for corporations (large and small, and individuals) to notify each other about their uses of marks, and seniority of use absolutely has precedence. Now you can be sure that in that case Disney would first check to see if your claim of use in commerce was legitimate, and finding that it was they would try to nitpick any flaw in your application, but ultimately there really wouldn't be anything they could do.
I'm not quite sure how to interpret this, but I know it needs interpreting. The part of me that wants to be charitable doubts what this story implies - that Disney has bought the rights to the next FDNY hat in an effort to capitalize on and exploit suffering - as just too disgusting to possibly be real. Another part of me is too shocked to be disgusted. A third part of me sees this as affirming all the unsubstantiated horror stories I've heard about Disney from acquaintances who work in the film world. A fourth part of me sees the burden as falling on the American people for creating a system that tolerates and even encourages this kind of (entirely predictable and inevitable) corporate behavior in the first place. Finally, a last part of me perceives this as all of the major problems with modern America rolled into one event: a Singularity of Suck - an event that sucks so much that what kinds of things will suck in the future becomes qualitatively and fundamentally unpredictable.
Read more: http://www.theinductive.com/blog/disneys-rent-seeking-a-singularity-of-suck.html
You can also leave a comment for Disney here - http://corporate.disney.go.com/citizenship/feedback.html
While a petition to cancel the trademarks could arguably be filed on the grounds that Disney is not able to *legitimately* exercise control over the use of the mark (see below) if they get enough nasty feedback and public commentary they will probably choose to withdraw or just abandon their application.
307 Time for Filing Petition to Cancel
15 U.S.C. 1064 [Section 14 of the Trademark Act] A petition to cancel a registration of a mark, stating the grounds relied upon, may, upon payment of the prescribed fee, be filed as follows by any person who believes that he is or will be damaged...
***
(5) At any time in the case of a certification mark on the ground that the registrant
(A) does not control, or is not able legitimately to exercise control over, the use of such mark,
Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!
There is simply no scope for satire in the idea of Disney planning to market lines of toys using the OBL assassination. All the points one could possibly make about US society are already there.
Starring Justin Bieber as Private Pyle
Given what happened to Private Pyle, I'd watch that.
And nerds like things that go boom
It discusses me.....what message are we sending to our children?....to our future voters....I always thought Disney=Fantasy..... NOT DISNEY to EQUAL CELEBRATION OF TRAGEDY, THE MURDER OF A HUMAN BEING AND MANY OTHERS......I am ashamed for our country......