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)