To further muddle the issue, at least two other American firms, a wedding business and a vitamin company, have trademarked Hakuna Matata. And Disney’s trademark does not stop people from printing the phrase on random clothing, as long as there is no connection to the movie or Disney.
In reality, Disney’s trademark has not stopped the pirating of its intellectual property. Markets across Africa sell unauthorized T-shirts with scenes and characters from “The Lion King” printed on them.
But the petition, originated by Shelton Mpala, an activist in Zimbabwe, argued against the trademark in broader terms. “The decision to trademark ‘Hakuna Matata’ is predicated purely on greed and is an insult not only to the spirit of the Swahili people but also Africa as a whole,” it said.
Mr. Mpala compared Disney’s trademark to “colonialism and robbery, the appropriation of something you have no right over.”
Trademark experts said the talk of colonialism and robbery was overwrought, and that the trademarking of phrases, particularly those from other languages, is commonplace.
“People talk about appropriation,” said Phillip Johnson, a professor of commercial law at Cardiff Law School in Wales and a specialist on intellectual property law, “but a trademark is all about appropriation of language within a narrow commercial sphere, outside that space people are free to use the language as they wish.”
“What’s difficult about this case is whether it was a sensible commercial decision for the Disney brand, rather than whether, legally, the mark should or should not be registered,” he added. “The question is, does their brand benefit from having trademark or does it get damaged from bad publicity from having that trademark?”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/world/africa/hakuna-matata-disney-trademark.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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