No SEAL Team 6 Trademark for Disney

In a daring raid by members of the Navy's LEGAL Team 6, the trademark applications filed by Disney for "SEAL Team 6" were terminated, with extreme embarrassment, and with no official comment as yet from the Mouse.

- by Bob McLain, May 28, 2011

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Earlier this month, Disney applied for the trademark 'SEAL Team 6' in several categories, including clothing, toys, game, and entertainment.

SEAL Team 6, of course, is the unofficial name of the group responsible for bagging Bin Laden. The term SEAL stands for 'Sea Air and Land Teams', and those teams come under the aegis of the U.S. Navy.

I've had the pleasure of knowing one SEAL in my life, a veteran of World War II, and his stories would curl your hair, then pull it out by the roots.

You don't mess with the SEALs, or the U.S. Navy, even if you're Disney.

Lesson learned:

Disney, on Wednesday, withdrew all of its trademark applications for SEAL Team 6.

All of them. And it had no comment as to the reason why.

The reason why is that the U.S. Navy wanted those trademarks, and made it clear they would take on Disney in court to get them.

In a battle between the U.S. Navy and Disney over the trademarks for SEAL Team 6, the loser - by a nautical mile - would have been Disney.

But not because Disney had no legal right to the trademarks. On legal grounds, Disney might have won, especially since it wanted the trademarks only for narrow categories in accord with its interests.

Disney, however, certainly would have lost the so-called 'hearts and minds' battle.

Bin Laden's body had barely settled to the ocean floor when Disney filed for SEAL Team 6 trademarks. Maybe Disney thought no one would notice, maybe Disney thought the Navy wouldn't care. But the Navy did care.

Someone at Disney put on their thinking cap and realized that a battle with the Navy over the trademarks to SEAL Team 6 would be fought mostly in the court of public opinion.

Who would support Disney's attempt to turn a profit from the heroism of others?

Maybe Disney and the Navy will work out a licensing deal. But for now, Disney has done the right thing.

It's a shame, though: SEAL Pals 6 did have such merit!