Responses to this message:
Just in case anyone is looking for more reasons to hate Disney -- and who isn't? -- this is an article from The Flint Journal in Flint, Michigan. (Web address below for verification.)
Disney weighs having Genesee library's mouse booked
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Book Mouse versus Mickey Mouse?
That's a battle Walt Disney Co. officials might raise with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office in Washington D.C. over the new mascot used by the Genesee District Library.
Last summer, the library submitted a trademark registry request for its new mascot, Book Mouse.
In April, Disney got a 90-day extension to consider whether or not to challenge the blue, large-eared rodent wearing red-rimmed glasses and a backpack.
Book Mouse appears on bumper stickers and in coloring books, and he even marches in local parades. The GDL's circulation has jumped 4.7 percent since his arrival.
Disney has until July 30 to decide whether to file an official challenge, said library attorney Patric Parker.
Parker is confident Book Mouse is different enough from the 74-year-old king of Disney to survive.
"I can't imagine it's deceptively similar to any Disney character we're aware of," Parker said.
"I don't think we cut into their movie profits this last year. Right now, I'm more amused by it than concerned."
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf /html_standard.xsl?/base/news-3/1024415404115200.xml
I have seen the mouse in question; there couldn't be any thing sillier than this. A host for a public affairs program carried by the local ABC affiliate -- which ABC directly owns in this case -- interviewed a library spokesman last Sunday. Even that host said that there were no similarities, other than both being based on mice.
Responses to this message:
Post a response to this discussion thread