Within two days of the Navy Seals’ successful mission against Osama Bin Laden, Disney showed up at the trademark office.  Specifically, they have applied to trademark “SEAL Team 6” for three uses:

1. Clothing, footwear, headwear
2. Entertainment and education services
3. Toys, games and playthings, including Christmas tree ornaments and snowglobes

Evidently, they plan to develop a TV series based on real-life military stories and want to protect that name from other third parties. Since so much of trademark litigation boils down to who gets there first, Disney’s forty-eight hour turnaround shows an almost SEAL-like efficiency from a business standpoint.

People will find plenty of moral and ethical aspects of this to debate, particularly regarding the ever cozier relationship between government and big corporations, but that is almost beside the point. We love good stories, we hunger for heroes, we fantasize about accomplishing nearly super human achievements.  And all that makes Disney’s much-discussed action all but inevitable.

But that said, if they put the producers of “Wizards of Waverly Place” on this, the mouse’s head will roll…

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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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