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Disney trying to trademark 'Dia de Los Muertos' for title of Pixar movie

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D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Disney's trying to trademark 'Dia de Los Muertos' ahead of the planned release of 'Untitled Pixar Movie about Dia de Los Muertos' in 2016.

Link.

File this one under Instant Backlash: Disney has filed several trademark applications for the phrase Dia de Los Muertos, as in the name of the traditional holiday that is celebrated in Mexico and elsewhere to honor the dead.

No, really.

The Fronteras Desk reports that the applications were filed May 1 in relation to an forthcoming Dia de Los Muertos-related Pixar film:

The areas they are hoping to secure include “education and entertainment services,” “fruit preserves; fruit-based snack foods,” “toys, games and playthings,” “clothing,” “footwear,” “backpacks,” “clocks and jewelry” and more.
​
The U.S. Trademark and Patent Office website lists 10 applications for "Dia De Los Muertos" filed by Disney Enterprises, Inc. in Burbank. A sample application listing "goods and services" under the desired trademark has this list:

Bags; backpacks; calling card cases; coin purses; fanny packs; key cases; key chains; luggage; luggage tags; purses; umbrellas; wallets
​
Another features a sort of "Day of the Dead Before Christmas" product list:

Toys, games and playthings; gymnastic and sporting articles (except clothing); hand-held units for playing electronic games for use with or without an external display screen or monitor; Christmas stockings; Christmas tree ornaments and decorations; snow globes
​
As for the backlash, that's underway. A few comments on the Fronteras website today included this one from Candace Curtis-Cavazos:

Disney has no right to claim my culture or the lives of those I have lost and how we celebrate that. This is wrong and Latinos across the world will be highly offended if this happens. Given Latinos are the largest growing population in the US right now, I would advise Disney to back off or else they may find themselves at a loss of a large population of supporters.​
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Disney lawyers: please just stop being assholes.
 
E

Exterminieren

Banned
Ooh, this could go very nasty, very quickly.

Countries don't like Disney fucking with their culture. Hercules saw a huge Greek backlash.
 
P

Pau

Member
It's not like they had to trademark Christmas (or Halloween) for The Nightmare Before Christmas so I don't get why they're doing this.

There's gotta be a better title for a movie than "Dia de Los Muertos."
 
S

Salsa

Member
also: Disney still owns the Lucasarts IPs

SOMEONE on pixar has to love Grim Fandango and put Manny in this movie, right?
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Pau said:
It's not like they had to trademark Christmas (or Halloween) for The Nightmare Before Christmas so I don't get why they're doing this.

There's gotta be a better title for a movie than "Dia de Los Muertos."
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Well, I'm sure they trademarked the full title 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'.

With these trademark applications, that's an indication that that's the full title, which is obviously just the name of a real holiday.

Hopefully public pressure makes them drop it, like they had to drop the attempts to trademark SEAL Team 6. I sure as hell don't have any faith in bureaucrats denying them.

SalsaShark said:
also: Disney still owns the Lucasarts IPs

SOMEONE on pixar has to love Grim Fandango and put Manny in this movie, right?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be too surprised by that. There's probably a number of former LucasArts employees at Pixar anyway. I think Steve Purcell (Sam & Max) is still at Pixar.
 
T

Thorakai

Member
I would suggest "Calaveras" as a title, but that may be too Spanish to get U.S. audiences to pronounce correctly.
 
T

Thug Waffle

Member
Ithil said:
How about "Dead"? I hear one word titles are playing well in focus groups.
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lol, nice.

We'll never see a movie called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" They'll just call it Blade Runner because it's easier to say and tighter on a marquee. The worst part of the cinema industry is that marketability factors into far too many creative decisions. Well, that's one of the worst things about that field.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Guys.

You can trademark anything. You can trademark pre-existing words. You can trademark the letter A. You can trademark the word "fart". Microsoft has a trademark for "Windows". This doesn't mean you own the word. It doesn't mean you're the exclusive user of the word. Disney will not "own" a holiday. Compass Pictures (who distributed the film Hallowe'en) had a trademark on the word Hallowe'en for all sorts of merchandise categories. It didn't make ghost decorations magically illegal. It means you have enforceable rights against products that are likely to create a substantial confusion with your own product.

Disney, if granted this trademark, would not be able to sue your Dia de Los Muertos party, just as Microsoft cannot sue a window installer. Even with the merchandise categories, they would not magically be able to sue people who make day of the dead purses or wallets.

If they choose to enforce this in a predatory way, going after people who clearly are not making deliberately confusing products, then sure, that's a problem. But being issued the trademark has no direct connection to that.
 
E

EatinOlives

Member
Wait, they're seriously calling it Dia de los Muertos?

I think this rates at a nice 0 on the effort scale. Couldn't even come up with a pun?
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
How is this different from trademarking something like Halloween or Independence Day?
 
T

Thug Waffle

Member
Stumpokapow said:
Guys.

You can trademark anything. You can trademark pre-existing words. You can trademark the letter A. You can trademark the word "fart". Microsoft has a trademark for "Windows". This doesn't mean you own the word. It doesn't mean you're the exclusive user of the word. It means you have enforceable rights against products that are likely to create a substantial confusion with your own product.

Disney, if granted this trademark, would not be able to sue your Dia de Los Muertos party, just as Microsoft cannot sue a window installer. Even with the merchandise categories, they would not magically be able to sue people who make day of the dead purses or wallets.

If they choose to enforce this in a predatory way, going after people who clearly are not making deliberately confusing products, then sure, that's a problem. But being issued the trademark has no direct connection to that.
Click to expand...

I have heard that these lawyers practically have to enforce their trademarks with a predatory mentality, because if they don't, it could end up being a point of argument in a case involving major infringement. "Why did Company X get to infringe on your trademark, but not us at Company Y?" type of thing. Not saying Disney will hunt down every last offender, though, like you mentioned.
 
C

Camp Lo

Banned
EatinOlives said:
Wait, they're seriously calling it Dia de los Muertos?

I think this rates at a nice 0 on the effort scale. Couldn't even come up with a pun?
Click to expand...
I think it's brilliant to already have that built in advertisement. It's a well known holiday, why muck it up?
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Stumpokapow said:
Guys.

You can trademark anything. You can trademark pre-existing words. You can trademark the letter A. You can trademark the word "fart". Microsoft has a trademark for "Windows". This doesn't mean you own the word. It doesn't mean you're the exclusive user of the word. It means you have enforceable rights against products that are likely to create a substantial confusion with your own product.

Disney, if granted this trademark, would not be able to sue your Dia de Los Muertos party, just as Microsoft cannot sue a window installer. Even with the merchandise categories, they would not magically be able to sue people who make day of the dead purses or wallets.

If they choose to enforce this in a predatory way, going after people who clearly are not making deliberately confusing products, then sure, that's a problem. But being issued the trademark has no direct connection to that.
Click to expand...

Well, anyone can sue for anything, it doesn't mean they'd win. I certainly wouldn't put it past Disney's lawyers to try and stifle Dia de Los Muertos products from companies who can't afford to fight them in court. The threat of a lawsuit, whether winnable or not, can be pretty powerful. These massive conglomerations tend to abuse that.

Thug Waffle said:
I have heard that these lawyers practically have to enforce their trademarks with a predatory mentality, because if they don't, it could end up being a point of argument in a case involving major infringement. "Why did Company X get to infringe on your trademark, but not us at Company Y?" type of thing. Not saying Disney will hunt down every last offender, though, like you mentioned.
Click to expand...
Yup, and this.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Halloween_cover.jpg


Independence_day_movieposter.jpg


Groundhog_Day_%28movie_poster%29.jpg


Seriously, why are people freaking out about this?

I can only conclude you don't know what a trademark is or what it means.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Htown said:
[/IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/87/Halloween_cover.jpg[/IMG]

[/IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Independence_day_movieposter.jpg[/IMG]

[/IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Groundhog_Day_%28movie_poster%29.jpg[/IMG]

Seriously, why are people freaking out about this?

I can only conclude you don't know what a trademark is or what it means.
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For what it's worth, of those only Halloween was granted a trademark. Groundhog Day was not at all, and Independence Day was registered under ID4 Independence Day, though there are a couple unrelated specific Independence Day marks.

But again, I think it's problematic giving massive corporations such broad trademarks on generic terms/phrases just for the potential chilling effect. As a company, if you're so concerned about something like this, pick an actual unique title. That'll make it even easier to defend and no one else doing legitimate business should worry.
 
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