On November 6, Walt Disney Co. succeeded in stopping the
unorthodox use of the Mickey Mouse image by a building materials
alliance in Beijing. The alliance punished errant building
materials dealers by making them parade in a huge mouse costume
that looked a lot like Disney's flagship character, Mickey
Mouse.
In October, dealers or vendors of building materials, with their
offices in Sihui Building Material Center in east Beijing, formed
an alliance and agreed to work together to set quality standards.
Any dealer found to have provided bad service or poor quality
products would be punished. He would have to parade at the front
gate of the building in a huge mouse outfit, resembling a giant
Mickey Mouse costume, with a placard reading: I apologize for the
bad service.
Punishments lasted five days.
According to Disney's lawyers, this practice defiled the image
of Mickey Mouse. In addition, they argued that the practice of
punishment by public humiliation was archaic. They demanded an
immediate stop to it.?
On November 6, the alliance agreed to stop using the mouse
outfit.
Residents living near the center believe that Disney overreacted
because the aim of the punishment was not to humiliate Mickey
Mouse, but errant dealers. They put it down to cultural differences
and a dissimilar sense of humor.
Ren Jiayu, a lawyer with Beijing Xinda Law Firm, said this
matter highlights how easy it is to get into a dispute over
cultural differences and intellectual property rights
violations.
(China.org.cn by Guo Xiaohong November 17, 2005)