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Justice Prevails

If idiocy was a crime, Mickey would be behind bars:

Less than a month after a daring raid on Osama bin Laden’s secret hideout, the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team 6 notched a victory over the Magic Kingdom.

Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday that it would pull an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in which the entertainment giant sought the exclusive right to use the term “SEAL Team 6″ on items ranging from toys and games to snow globes and Christmas stockings.

Disney withdrew the application “out of deference to the Navy,” a spokesman said.

Who said you can’t fix stupid?

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22 comments to Justice Prevails

  • Flugelman

    I would hope that Walt is spinning in his grave over his minions blatant attempt to profit off of our guys’ success.

  • GP Hanner

    Most likely, lawyers at the start and lawyers in the retreat.

  • STSCM(SS/DV)

    What Disney did was stupid, but… During WWII a lot of submarine battle flags were drawn up by Disney, pretty cool about it then too. But trying to Tm the SEALs is pretty damn dumb.

    • RJL

      Agreed, and not just submarine battle flags…Disney created all sorts of nose art and insignia for all the services, usually at the request of individual units. (Some of these survive today, e.g., VFA-211′s mascot.) See http://www.skylighters.org/disney/ for some samples…

      • virgil xenophon

        The WW II Nose Art bit was the first thing I thought of RJL (have bookmarked your site, btw) FWIW several PT-Boat Squadrons used Disney characters as well. In a way it seems to me that this “contretemps” serves as a fitting metaphor for the trajectory of America’s decline–from Disney being a patriotic supporter of the armed services in WW II down to the sorry state of today wherein the modern-day Disney corporate weasels feel free to appropriate the good name of a Naval unit (indeed the very “persona” of its existence) without even consultation (let alone acquiring permission)with the Navy itself. It’s almost as if the current Disney crowd considers the armed services as nothing more than a movie prop–a convenient backdrop to showcase their fare–trading on the exploits of the SEALS even as they implicitly treat them as nothing more than fictional action figures in their shows. Perhaps I’m “over-determining” this whole thing, but the whole affair to me is indicative of the by now almost total divorce between civilian society and the armed services as demonstrated here by the cavalier approach shown in Disney’s treatment of the project. Almost as if the SEALS existed only as fodder for good action-adventure shows and not for the defense of the country.

        Perhaps I’m reading too much into it all when nothing more than Occam’s Razor applies, i.e., general garden-variety stupidity. And while it may be that</I. too, I still feel that a patina–an attitude–of general casual unconcern and dismissiveness toward the armed services covers the whole affair. Somebody tell me I'm totally off base..Snake-eater?…Snake?

    • Had Disney been asked, then all would have been well. As it is…

    • My own favorite is the Flying Tigers design.

  • Busbob

    OK, I’ll be the first.

    The whole Disney thing was downright Goofy.

  • MikeyB

    Must have been the whispered comment about a snatch-n-grab on __________(fill in the blank with your favorite Disney character.)!

  • Joe in N Calif

    In WWII Adolf Galland used Mickey Mouse as his personal marking on his plane: http://www.luftwaffe39-45.historia.nom.br/ases/galland7_gr.jpg

  • dingo

    Disney’s ABC subsidiary wanted to develop a TV show along the lines “NCIS” and “JAG,” which are also real-life Navy units, and would have focused on the drama and heroism of the special forces members.”

    Source: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/25/3654562/disney-withdraws-navy-seal-trademark.html#ixzz1NQJnaYKf

    –May be time for Disney to go back to it’s primary focus.

    • Jim Collins

      Please tell me that this wouldn’t be like that dumbass show “Supercarrier” that was on ABC in the late 80′s.

      I can see it now. Disney, political correctness and SEALs. They would have them shooting the guns out of the bad guys hands, rescuing a puppy from the military-industrial complex security goons or Jewish extremists, or shooting-up people releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

  • edward

    The code for “G” stage should have been “Goofy” instead of “Geronimo”.
    That would have lead to a real court battle.

  • Mike Myers

    Who knew that Mickey was a pig?

  • George P

    I think the whole thing is a hoot, based on the military’s obsession with over-secrecy. Military “officials” say SEAL Team 6 doesn’t exist, and nobody will admit being a member of it. So if the unit doesn’t exist, why CAN’T Disney trademark that name? -:))

    The military could have long ago safely admitted the team exists, of course offering no details on tactics or equipment. No harm done to anyone.

    And yes, Disney’s move was pretty Dopey anyway.

  • Mike M. (of the UAVs, never heard of the other one)

    Double-tap the Rat!

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