DeSantis copying Disney font to sell merchandise could end in trademark violations: report
If there's one thing Disney doesn't play around with it's copyright and trademark infringement. Bloomberg Law spotted a hat for Ron DeSantis 2024 presidential campaign that uses a Disney-link font with the signature "D" and bubble dotting the "I."
As the report explained, the script is intellectual property that only adds to DeSantis' problems with the company that is suing him over being targeted by the state government after expressing their objections to his so-called "Don't Say Gay" law.
"Whether the caps—sold at a DeSantis book tour event and depicting his name in the typeface over 'President 2024' in block text—raise trademark liability could turn on how the US Supreme Court interprets poop jokes on a dog toy," the report explained.
It's an actual case before the High Court between Jack Daniel’s and VIP Products over whether VIP Products, who makes dog toys, stole the whisky maker's product when it made the product "Bad Spaniels" using a bottle similar to Daniel's.
"It also would require tying the hat sales to his operation," Bloomberg Law said.
The only way DeSantis could win the case is by claiming that he's using his freedom of speech to attack or even parody Disney. The problem, however, is that they don't say anything critical about Disney and DeSantis isn't attempting to pretend that he is his own parody version of the company. So, that case might be a heavy lift, particularly given the legal skills of the Disney lawyers that already outwitted the Harvard and Yale graduate once.
"A litany of factors could prove important, if not decisive, as courts have taken varied approaches to weighing free speech against trademark rights when purported parody or criticism is involved," the legal site explained. "Some courts jump straight to a free speech test, while others incorporate such concerns into trademark law’s standard likelihood of consumer confusion analysis."
If DeSantis loses It would put the score at: Disney 2 and DeSantis 0.