"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?”"
