It’s. On. Dance music DJ, Deadmau5, has been rocking a faux mouse head on stage for years at his shows, so much so that he’s decided to try and trademark the black and white mouse-head logo found on everything from merch to album artwork. Disney, however, isn’t having a bar of it, instead opting to block the trademark which has seen the pair descend into a legal mud-sling.
A few days ago, Deadmau5 returned home from his amazing set at the iTunes Festival in London (seriously, go check it out) to find that Disney had tried to oppose his mouse head trademark.
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
Disney has a famous mouse of its own, trading off the Mickey Mouse-ears seemingly since the Steamboat Mickey years of the early-1920’s.
Deadmau5 already has the mouse-head trademark in other countries around the world, but Disney filed to block its registration in the US, according to TMZ.
This morning, Deadmau5 — real name Joel Zimmerman — decided to push the battle further and lawyer up against Disney for allegedly remixing and using one of his tracks (posted above) without a licence.
oh, @disney just in case you dont check your email, ill just leave this here. pic.twitter.com/I9ZSHsKlWV
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) September 4, 2014
… @disney sorry heres the second page! Have a magical fucking day! pic.twitter.com/fGQf6jMOAc
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) September 4, 2014
“Have a magical fucking day,” Zimmerman signed off when he posted the letter on Twitter.
Oh, it’s on.