[governance] Tangential - Corporate Fail: Disney's Attempt to Trademark Cultural Holiday

[Riaz K Tayob]

[Preview of forthcoming attractions at the ICANN IPR desk? Methinks that 
unless thought is applied to this matter carefully ICANN will simply 
remake the mess that is cybersquating dispute resolution (which has come 
a long ways though) ....]

Published on Thursday, May 9, 2013 by Common Dreams 
<http://www.commondreams.org>


    Corporate Fail: Disney's Attempt to Trademark Cultural Holiday


      Disney drops efforts to trademark 'Día de los Muertos' following
      online outrage

- Andrea Germanos, staff writer

Disney has dropped its effort to trademark 'Día de los Muertos,' a 
holiday celebrated in Mexico and around the world, following widespread 
outrage.

Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz/Pocho.com /Fronteras Desk/ 
<http://www.fronterasdesk.org/news/2013/may/07/disney-wants-trademark-dia-de-los-muertos/> 
reported that

    Disney filed 10 requests in the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office
    this month to coin the phrase. Disney's filings are mainly for
    merchandise, presumably connected to an upcoming 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.

Online outraged followed the news that the corporation would appropriate 
and profit from a cultural tradition.

A Change.org petition 
<http://www.change.org/petitions/walt-disney-company-stop-trademark-of-dia-de-los-muertos?utm_campaign=friend_inviter_chat&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=permissions_dialog_true> 
launched following the announcement states:

    Dia de los Muertos is a religious observance during which Mexican
    people, and particularly native peoples, in Mexico, the United
    States, and abroad, honor ancestors and loved ones who have died.
    This important religious, spiritual, and cultural observance
    pre-dates the invasion of Mexico by the Spanish. We celebrate these
    sacred days and honor our deceased loved ones by making altars and
    placing offerings of food such as pan de muertos baked in shapes of
    skulls and figures, candles, incense, yellow marigolds known as
    cempaxochitl, and offering prayers and the smoke of copal. Disney's
    proposed trademarks would negatively affect the livelihood of
    bakers, the work of artists and craftspeople, and of writers and
    educators.

    Our spiritual traditions are for everyone, not for companies like
    Walt Disney to trademark and exploit. I am deeply offended and
    dismayed that a family-oriented company like Walt Disney would seek
    own the rights to something that is the rightful heritage of the
    people of Mexico.

More reactions from Twitter:

But just a week after submitting its trademark requests, Disney said 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/disney-drops-bid-to-trademark-name-of-traditional-mexican-dia-de-los-muertos-holiday/2013/05/08/c31b4b68-b7e0-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_story.html> 
it was dropping those efforts, stating:

    Disney's trademark filing was intended to protect any potential
    title for our film and related activities. It has since been
    determined that the title of the film will change, and therefore we
    are withdrawing our trademark filing.

As On the Commons, a movement working for a commons-based society has 
documented 
<http://onthecommons.org/magazine/how-disney-raids-public-domain>, 
Disney has been 'raiding the commons' for decades, taking from the 
public domain but offering nothing back in return.

___________________________________

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 
3.0 License


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