Navy In Fight Now With Disney
Well leave it to someone to try to commercialize and profit from our soldiers. Disney wants to trademark the "SEAL Team 6" name. Just a few days after the raid and killing of Osama Bin Laden the Disney corporation filed for a trademark on the name.Now the Navy (SEAL's) as I see it deserve the trademark name and all that goes with it; if they want to
market toys, videos whatever, then they should benefit from the profits. However, the law isn't always so straight forward. The Navy did file it's own trademark patent for the sole use of the name "SEAL Team 6" seeing as they've been using it since the 80's with no problems they shouldn't have a problem winning if this goes to court. If this case does make it to court then Disney would actually have priority to the name because they did file for the patent first. However, according to trademark attorney Thomas Wilentz:
"But the U.S. Navy may have the argument that they are, you know, actually the SEALs, that they were using it first to identify themselves and any use by Disney would create consumer confusion about sponsorship," he said. "And if they actually took Disney to court they could win."
The two organizations could also come to an agreement on the use of the logo which would satisfy both
Disney and the Navy. It could take as long as 3 months for the applications to be reviewed so right now it's a wait and see as to the patent and trademark office's decision.
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