Just one day after President Obama announced that terrorist “Usama Bin Landen” had been killed, Disney’s attorneys got to work. Specifically, they set about filing trademarks on “Seal Team 6”, the nickname for the team responsible for taking down Bin Laden1. You can find Disney’s exact applications by searching USPTO.gov for serial numbers 85310957, 85310966, and 853109702.
If the marks are granted, Disney will be able to use the name on clothing, footwear, and headwear, as well as toys and games. The marks also cover a litany of even less appropriate products. I’ve listed some of them below, in increasing order of absurdity:
Hand-held game-playing units
Gymnastic and sporting articles
Entertainment and education services
Christmas stockings
Christmas tree ornaments and decorations
And here I’d always heard Christmas was about bringing people together, not blowing them apart3. But perhaps the most incongruous product Disney could make featuring Seal Team 6?
Snow globes
Meanwhile, it’s hard luck for a company called NovaLogic, which abandoned two trademarks (serial numbers 76407608 and 78381296) on “Seal Team 6” back in 2006. Those marks would have granted NovaLogic exclusive rights to the likely lucrative business of making “games and playthings, namely action figures and accessories” with the name.
Update (June 5th, 2011): If you were planning to get me one of those Seal Team 6 snow globes, I’m afraid we’re both out of luck. Shortly after this news came out, the Navy stepped in with their own claim, causing Disney to withdraw their application.
Footnotes:
The best thing about the name “Seal Team 6” is original team leader Richard Marcinko’s claim it was chosen as a ruse to fool the then-Soviet Union into believing there were more elite commando squads than actually existed at the time. ↩︎
Since searching their site is a pain in the ass, I’ve archived the applications here: 85310957, 85310966, and 85310970. ↩︎
