Disney Pixar are a couple days away from the release of BRAVE and are still dealing with a couple of lawsuits regarding the film.
The first has been around since last year regarding the Atlanta Braves baseball team claiming the title would infringe on their marketing. While I doubt any little girl would accidentally think a baseball stadium was a movie theater, I could see some merit in their concerns. Disney is in the middle of reaching a settlement with the MLB team regarding the suit.
Oddly, the Atlanta Braves marketing concerns only focused on specific products: “Fruit preserves; fruit-based snack foods; jams; jellies; potato chips; processed nuts; milk and milk products excluding ice cream, ice milk and frozen yogurt; meat, poultry, processed fruits, processed vegetables; prepared or packaged meals consisting primarily of meat, fish, poultry or vegetables.” It seems that if Disney wanted to put the movie logo on a baseball jersey, the team would have been fine with it.
The other legal issue is, well, hilariously dumb. A trademark examiner rejected the studio’s claim on the name “Disney Pixar Brave” because there was a chance Pixar would have legal issues having the Disney name in their trademark. You got it, the guy did not know that Disney owns Pixar.
Disney is currently asking for another look at their trademark request, citing screenshots of the Disney and Pixar websites along with the documents showing they bought the animation company.
Makes you wonder if these are just normal days in a studio legal department. Must be the most excitement they have had since Lindsay Lohan stopped working there.