Father Orthoduck is rather upset today. Why is he rather upset? Well, please go to the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. While there go to the “Trademarks” column and click on option 2, “Search Marks.” On the webpage that comes up, look at, “Select a Search Option,” and click on “Basic Word Mark Search.” Input the phrase “seal team six.” Four sets of numbers will come up, three of them marked “live.” Click on any of the live ones. The first live one shows the entry below.
| Word Mark | SEAL TEAM 6 |
| Goods and Services | IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment and education services |
| Standard Characters Claimed | |
| Mark Drawing Code | (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK |
| Serial Number | 85310970 |
| Filing Date | May 3, 2011 |
| Current Filing Basis | 1B |
| Original Filing Basis | 1B |
| Owner | (APPLICANT) Disney Enterprises, Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 500 South Buena Vista Street Burbank CALIFORNIA 91521 |
| Attorney of Record | Charles Steinberg |
| Type of Mark | SERVICE MARK |
| Register | PRINCIPAL |
| Live/Dead Indicator | LIVE |
Yes, it is true. Two days after the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden, Disney Enterprises filed with the USA government an application to trademark the term “seal team 6.” For what are those words being trademarked in the three applications marked live? “Disney’s trademark applications for ‘Seal Team 6’ cover clothing, footwear, headwear, toys, games and ‘entertainment and education services,’ among other things.” Yes, just think, within a month or two (or maybe less), Disney plans on making available to you clothing, footwear, headwear, toys, games, etc., all bearing the words “seal team 6.” Just think of how honoring it would be to go to events honoring our servicemen while you wear your Disney emblazoned seal team 6 headwear.
Father Orthoduck is not amused.
To quote a Disney character, “Why am I not surprised?” No ceremony honoring the real Seal Team 6, but plenty of exploitation. Sad, sad day.
At least I can understand why no ceremony. If you notice, at the highest levels there is not even a full acknowledgement that there is a Seal Team Six, or even that they were the ones involved. That is to protect them, which is a very worthy reason not to bring them out in public. The exploitation is shameful.
I always suspected Mickey was a hit man. 😉
This is the company that was macabrely rechristened “Mauschwitz” by bitter over-worked and under-paid animators. People who aren’t fans of animation usually haven’t heard of this nickname and the grim observation that animators go in and never come out. There are certain types of exploitation that Disney has been known for for a while. Hopefully that has changed since Pixar functionally became the artistic wing of Disney’s animated studio network but this Navy Seal T-shirt thing is not so much a surprise as a disappointment to me.
You think you’re not amused now, OrthoCuban, wait until the Christian (TM) knockoff merchandise starts appearing in the Jesus Junk stores as Witnessing Opportunities (TM).
(Last month I saw a Twilight knockoff T-shirt — “TheLight” — in the CostCo parking lot. It’s only a matter of time until we see Christianese “Seal Team 7” tees with “SEAL” done as an anagram for something Christianese.)