Día de los Muertos, Brought to You by Walt Disney

May 7, 2013
1:07 PM

UPDATE: Disney says that they will now withdraw the filings.

An interesting story out of Disney. According to a blog that covers all things Disney, the company has formally filed a federal trademark to copyright “Día de los Muertos.”

Via hispanicmeme.com

Via hispanicmeme.com

Here is what the blog reported:

Within the past few days, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has filed several trademark applications in attempt to secure ‘Dia de Los Muertos’ across multiple areas. Dia de Muertos, or ‘Day of the Dead,’ is a holiday most associated with Mexico, where it serves as a national holiday on November 1 and 2 — the days following Halloween — in which families gather together to remember and pray for relatives who have passed on. Interestingly enough, it has also been selected as the topic of an upcoming film from Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Lee Unkrich, tentatively being titled The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dia de los Muertos. The move could indicate that Disney is simply hedging its bets or that Pixar has indeed settled on simply calling its film Dia de Los Muertos, though they have yet to file for films that will precede it, such as Inside Out (2015), though trademarks have been filed for The Good Dinosaur (2014).

The following is just one screen capture from the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS), run by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A search confirms that Disney has submitted several claims. (FYI, enter “Día de los Muerto” for the claims to show up.)

20130507-150633.jpg

The post also lists some of the areas the filing will try to cover. Here are just a few examples:

  • Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Education and entertainment services
  • Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: Confectionery and chewing gum; breakfast cereals and preparations made from cereals; cereal bars; bread; muffins; muffin bars; pastry; waffles; pancakes; cookies; crackers; biscuits; popcorn; corn chips; pretzels; puddings; coffee; tea; cocoa; sugar; rice; flour; ices; ice; honey; condiments; sauces; spices; pizza; pasta and noodles; macaroni and cheese; frozen meals consisting primarily of pasta or rice; staple foods
  • Goods and Services IC 003. US 001 004 006 050 051 052. G & S: Cosmetics; dentifrices; non-medicated toiletries; fragrances; perfumes

Hit it, Gollum.