After their epic collapse in last season's NL wild-card race, it might make sense for the Atlanta Braves to lower their sights and take on a Mickey Mouse organization.
Dueling with Disney, though?
That's a different matter altogether.
In a story that's sure to delight both fans of baseball and frivolous legal proceedings, the Braves have been challenging the mouse over the title of "Brave," the new Pixar film due next summer.
Though the movie will feature a princess overcoming obstacles of some undetermined nature — and not, say, blowing an 8.5-game lead to the St. Louis Cardinals over the season's final three weeks — the Braves are uncomfortable with the similarity in names and have filed several objections to Disney Pixar's trademark applications.
Stitch Kingdom, a leading Disney news website, has more:
Although trademarks are specific to their singular and plural forms and the Braves do not possess any trademarks for the word BRAVE (only BRAVES), the organization believes that damages will occur as a result of Disney's trademarks being approved as they have used the singular form before on merchandise and insist it is common for fans, media, et al to use the singular form when referring to a single player, whereas the pluralized form refers to the entire team.
Stitch Kingdom notes that "companies must actively police and enforce their trademarks and take all reasonable action to protect them otherwise the trademark may be considered abandoned and thrown into the public domain." So perhaps this is just a case of due diligence and the Braves' legal guys aiming to bill a few more hours.
But with the matter still unresolved, it's unlikely that you'll see Princess Merida doing any promotional work at the Braves spring training games that are held — well, how about that? — at Disney's Wide World of Sports campus in Lake Buena Vista.
Also in hiding until this all blows over?
This guy.
Big BLS H/N: BBTF
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