Deadmau5 (pronounced deadmouse) is an electronic musician and DJ who always performs while wearing a big-ass plastic helmet designed to look like a mouse. A helmet that just so happens to bear a striking resemblance to a certain mascot for a soulless corporate entity called Disney, who attempted to sue Deadmau5 for trademark infringement in 2014, which didn’t exactly go well.
The trouble all began in 2012 when Deadmau5 was innocently asked during an interview how on Earth he’d somehow manage to trademark his Mau5 head logo.
In some 30 countries without Disney noticing that it sort of looked a hell of a lot like their Mickey Mouse logo.
Deadmau5 laughed off the comment, stating that someone in Disney’s legal team really dropped the ball on that one before adding that he was actually planning on applying for a trademark in the US the following year. The ink didn’t even have time to dry on Deadmau5’s trademark application before Disney caught wind of it and threatened to sue the shit of him if he tried to pursue the claim. Deadmau5’s lawyer responded by asking Disney how it took them 10 years to notice this fucking guy.
Specifically, his lawyers asked how in the duck-tits Disney a company so infamously protective of their intellectual property they once sued a fucking daycare over murals of Mickey Mouse, had failed to notice a guy wearing a giant glowing mouse head for an entire decade. We mean, it’s not like Deadmou5 keeps himself to himself or anything, prior to applying for his trademark in the US he’d got one in 30 other countries where Disney is a thing while driving around in a Ferrari that looks like this …
Deadmou5 took exception to Disney’s claim, specifically the part where they claimed his logo was so similar to their own that it might potentially confuse their fans, writing online:
“Disney thinks you might confuse an established electronic musician/performer with a cartoon mouse. That’s how stupid they think you are.”
But this is where things get delicious. You see while Disney were accusing Deadmau5 of potentially profiting from an unauthorized use of their intellectual property by suggesting they somehow endorsed him, they released a music video on their official YouTube channel using one of his songs without his permission. Deadmau5 found this amusing and sent Disney a cease and desist letter for unauthorised use of his intellectual property and for implying his endorsement of the video by using his name and logo. You know, the exact same thing Disney were suing him for. Disney didn’t see the funny side and claimed that they’d properly licensed the song, even though the guy who wrote it knew for a fact he never gave them permission.
Eventually after a year of Disney waving its dick around the company realised that maybe the company who owns Star Wars wasn’t at risk of being confused for a guy wearing a glowing plastic mouse head and the two settled their differences in 2015.
