No more squeaks from Deadmau5 as trademark row settled

A trademark dispute between electronic music producer Deadmau5 and a musical that featured a mouse’s journey to becoming a professional DJ was resolved just 24 hours after starting.

It started after Deadmau5 sent a cease-and-desist letter to the organisers of Deadmouse: The Musical, due to be performed in Toronto next month. Deadmau5 had requested a response within 24 hours of their receiving the letter.

Dated June 17, the letter stated that while the musical may be “paying tribute to him”, the use of the ‘Deadmouse’ name unfairly “capitalises on the goodwill and reputation of Deadmau5’s extremely popular marks”.

The musician confirmed in a tweet sent yesterday, June 17, that the dispute had ended: “The dead mouse musical debacle is settled. They have just put up a disclaimer and called it a parody. Moving along now.”

A similar statement was published on the official website of Deadmouse: The Musical: “Just so there’s no confusion, the musical is not written by Deadmau5 or endorsed by Deadmau5. It is a parody. It was written out of love of house music culture.”

Deadmouse: The Musical is due to be performed at the Toronto Fringe Festival between July 3 and July 11. It concerns a mouse that has to overcome discrimination in its pursuit of becoming a DJ.

“Think Ratatouille meets Book of Mormon,” the official description of the musical says. But its website was updated yesterday to confirm that it was a parody.

Last year, Deadmau5 was on the opposite end of a trademark row after Disney opposed his attempt to trademark his mouse head logo. Disney claimed that such a trademark would cause a “likelihood of confusion” with its own Mickey Mouse mark, which has been use in since 1928.

However, Deadmau5 hit back a month later stating that Disney had wanted to collaborate with him on the mouse head design for another project. He said the fact Disney approached him about this project should work in his favour. The dispute is continuing.