As reported by Stitch Kingdom, the Walt Disney Company has filed a Notice of Opposition regarding Canadian electronic artist Deadmau5, whose signature mouse head logo and helmet (which you can see in the photo above) is considered too similar to the company’s iconic Mickey Mouse logo. The notice was brought against Ronica Holdings Limited, who owns the trademark to Deadmau5’s logo, in an effort to prevent the DJ from successfully attaining a US trademark.
Disney claims that their Mickey Mouse silhouette logo has been used on their consumer products since “at least as early as 1955,” and Deadmau5’s use of his own logo could potentially confuse consumers looking to purchase Disney products.
Deadmau5, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, has been using his mouse head helmet and logo for 10 years. Speaking with TMZ, Deadmau5’s attorney Dina LaPolt claims that the DJ already has a trademark for his logo in 30 countries other than the United States, including Japan, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Deadmau5 applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2013 to attain a trademark on his logo, which set off Disney’s investigation and ultimate legal action.
Though Ronica Holdings has been given 40 days to respond to Disney’s notice, Deadmau5, has taken to Twitter already to respond. You can check out those tweets below:
landed home to some interesting news: looks like Disney officially just filed in opposition of my trademark... lawyer up mickey.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) September 3, 2014
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
