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The Walt Disney Co. has reversed course and withdrawn its applications to trademark SEAL Team 6, the name of the elite Navy unit that killed Osama bin Laden. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Navy filed its own applications for rights to “SEAL Team” and “Navy SEALs” about a week after Disney, with a Navy spokesman saying, “We are fully committed to protecting our trademark rights.” A Disney spokesman said the company was withdrawing “out of deference to the Navy.” Disney planned to use the trademark to sell merchandise and, according to a WSJ source, develop a show based on the Navy unit for ABC.
Bin Laden’s death has sparked action on several projects related to the former Al-Qaeda leader. Deadline has already reported that Sony Pictures is close to a deal to distribute a project from The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal about the raid that killed bin Laden, and also that Universal is prepping a Navy SEAL movie from Peter Berg, an adaptation of Marcus Luttrell’s Afghanistan War memoir Lone Survivor.
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Disney should have had the “deference to the Navy” not have applied for the trademark in the first place.
Glad to see somebody finally beat the Disneyfication of the world. Of course it took the USN Seals to do it.
Actually it was the JAG corp. give CBS the credit it is due… geez
Whoever it was at Disney who came up with the idea to trademark it is a fucking moron.
I agree. And even bigger morons were the guys who thought it was a good idea. It’s the lamest Hollywood move I’ve ever heard.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
So Disney is admitting that they’re a collection of douchebags?
In other news:
Disney exec gets their lunch money stolen by local bully…
Someone’s losing their touch.
Wow, perhaps fearing the backlash had they gone ahead with the battle for the trademark?
Disney you should be ashamed.
Perhaps they were afraid SEAL Team Six might come SHOOT THEM IN THE EYE.
What incredible chutzpah.
The untold part of the story can now be revealed: last night, Robert Iger woke up to find six burly, balaclava-wearing men standing over his bed. After he peeked out from beneath the sheets again, they had vanished, leaving only one of John Lassiter’s fingers behind on the nightstand (the one he doesn’t use that much.)
Disney got the message: You don’t fuck with Mickey, but you REALLY don’t fuck with Uncle Sam.
This HAD to be a publicity stunt. It’s certainly drawn attention to the project.
They could just make a show called “VI” but then everyone would be expecting the seals to take out lizard-aliens.
Disney suits = morons
There has to be another childerns book that they can make into a poor, sub standern movie … Oh wait maybe think something up that hasnt been done before … no its easier to jump onto the band wangon.
Someone else would have done it instead and not been as amicable. It is stupid the Navy would have to trademark such things but I am glad they have now.
So, can anyone give reasons why this was a ‘boneheaded’ idea? Disney bought the rights for an ABC show (I’m sure it could be a compelling show) and toys (there are a ton of soldier toys). How is it a bad idea to acquire the rights and then defer to the Navy? Seems like it was a smart move in my book.
And ‘Osama’ stole a lot of money from this country. It’s time to get some of it back.
what a class act mickey is
More like a tactless move…
Stole? More like willfully given by the American government.
It was a smart move for Disney financially, to profit off of Hardworking American Heroes™, but ethically was one of the worst decisions they’ve made in recent years.
Seals-1, Mouse-0
Disney being disgusting yet again. I’m sure they deferred to the Navy out of respect and not because even they could foresee the public relations nightmare that was coming at them if they actually tried to fight it.
I’m curious if this had any impact on Pirates 4 box office. I agree the 3D did — but did people’s threats in forums like the ones here to boycott have any merit? Probably a small percentage. But still curious.
A TV show about a secret US special forces “unit” traveling around the globe to dispatch the world’s most wanted terrorists?
I’d watch that show!
They could just call it “The Unit” … oh, wait..
Stole? We gave it to him along with weapons and intelligence support for years.
Well seeing as most of the known world -that is outside of the United States has believed Bin Laden has been dead since December 2001… and the CIA, Mossad, MI5 and every other “intelligence” and security agency knows it for a fact. It then rather begs the question that Disney was about to celebrate and exploit the Navy Seals, in a mission that was all Hollywood… and all propaganda and perverted patriotism!
The whole Bin Laden story, like the whole war on terror, is so out-of-control and corrupt… but then Disney or any other studio wouldn’t be interested in doing something on that!
Disney should take a page from G.I. Joe and create a character like “Navy Seal Sam”
that is highly trademarkable
Good that was stupid and since it seems that all live-action Disney productions are either sports films or produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (in the case of Remember the Titans, it was two-fold). The Berg and Bigelow-Boal projects sound way more interesting, mostly because those stories were compelling (Lone Survivor is an incredible story and Luttrell himself would make for a great lead character) and you knew these were the right kind of people to tell their subjects.
WTF was Disney thinking, after the Seals heroic success recently!!!
Don’t know why Disney would want to trademark it – but then again it always has been about the money whether the Corporation be Disney or the USA Navy Inc.
At least a cartoon would have been fictional and you’d know it. Instead a story is going to be written that Hollywood will try to pass off as fact… I hope they keep all the PR inconsistencies in from the White House whilst they were still deciding exactly what happened.
Best Navy Seals film I’ve seen starred Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn in the 1990′s – happy days!
If it wasn’t Disney it was going to be somebody else to try to register for that trademark. Variations of the domain name is already registered to some parking sites.
I’m still astounded that Disney thought this was ok. I don’t think anyone should be able to trademark a name or image that’s directly associated with the US military/government. It should be offensive to any American to have a company waltz in and think they have the right to lay claim to something that rightly belongs to the country. And to do it right after a particular US military unit (Navy SEALs) takes out US enemy #1…..this is a PR fuck up of epic proportions. The only way this could have been worse is if they decided to trademark the images of the World Trade Centers as promotional consideration for a movie about 9/11. What a bunch of idiots!!!