deadmau5 Legal Battle with Disney Getting Ugly

Conglomerate and powerhouse Disney is going head to head with famed EDM artist deadmau5, born Joel Zimmerman for a copyright dispute.

The lawsuit kicked in when Zimmerman aka deadmau5 tried to file for a registered trademark in the United States on his logo, the mau5head, which he wears while performing. deadmau5 has already successfully registered the logo in 30 other countries.

CelebNMusic247.com has learned that Disney believes the mau5head is too close to their own Mickey Mouse and now Disney filed a 171 page opposition to the trademark due to the likeness, according to Dina LaPolt, Zimmerman’s attorney.

Zimmerman has been raising a stink of his own against Disney via social media making the cease and desist public on his Twitter account.

Zimmerman fired off these sarcastic shots at Disney via Twitter:

[rpi]

Followed by this remark on his twitter after, Zimmerman filed a claim of his own against Disney. He sent Disney a cease and desist letter after the Mouse put up a video, both on their site and YouTube, using his song “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff:”

Here is the video, Disney posted with deadmau5 music playing disguising the attack as a re-mick’s for unknowing Disney fans.

As it turns out, the company accusing Zimmerman of infringing on a trademark was doing so while infringing on Zimmerman’s ownership of “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff,” which he licensed exclusively to EMI, Virgin Records and Ultra Records. Disney does not appear to have any deals set up with those recording companies to use the song.

As for the publishing time, Disney had not removed the infringing video. They have not issued a public comment on the matter.

What do you think of Disney trying to muscle out deadmau5.

The images look nothing alike and the faces are different. the only thing Disney can argue is the shape of the mouse head, but deadmau5 has big ears and a digital face while Mickey Mouse has small ears, a nose, dimples and big cartoon eyes. There is no comparison.

We will see how this lawsuit plays out….we will keep you posted.