Not taking the Mickey! Disney launch legal action against Deadmau5 over mouse ears logo trademark



It is Disney's most famous trademark.

And now the media giant has started a legal fight with DJ Deadmau5 in which they claim his logo is too similar to their Mickey Mouse ears symbol.



The firm is challenging the Canadian dance favourite's attempts to make his own insignia, which is also one large circle with two smaller spherical discs for ears, a trademark.

Cheesed off: DJ Deadmau5 is getting ready to fight with Disney over whether he can have his logo trademarked

The cheesed off 33-year-old music star, real name Joel Zimmerman, said he was determined to fight it out in court in a Twitter post.



He said: 'Landed home to some interesting news: looks like Disney officially just filed in opposition of my trademark... lawyer up mickey.

'Oh, in other news.. im home! time to catch up with my cat for a minute and enjoy some timmies and ponder the finer points of trademark legal.'

He filed a U.S. trademark application for his logo, which is a caricature of a mouse head logo, back in June 2013.

Lookalikes: Disney claim Deadmau5's logo, left, is too similar to their blacked out Mickey ears logo



The Canadian DJ's logo has became well known and is copyrighted in several other countries

It covers various goods and services including sound and visual recording instruments, BMX bikes, clothing, toys and games, food items, as well as entertainment and educational services relating to music.

He has been wearing his trademark plastic mouse head for 10 years, and his attorney Dina LaPolt told TMZ he also has a trademark in 30 countries, including Japan, Germany, Italy and the U.K.

The Walt Disney Company is well known for zealously protecting its trademark on the Mickey Mouse character.

In 1989 it went as far as threatening legal action against three daycare centres in Florida for having Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters painted on their walls, which led to their removal.

The 1998 Copyright Term Extension has also become known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act due to the extensive lobbying by the Disney corporation to have it passed into law, which prevented early cartoons featuring the character from entering the public domain.



Disney argued that the black ears and face and white eyes were 'nearly identical in appearance, connotation and overall commercial impression to Disney’s Mouse Ears'