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Deadmau5 sued over the name of his (live)cat

By | Published on Wednesday 15 March 2017

Deadmau5

Deadmau5 – no stranger to amusing trademark battles – has vowed to fight a lawsuit filed against him in a dispute over the name of his cat. Yeah, that’s right, that’s what we’ve actually gathered here to discuss today.

The dance music peddler, real name Joel Zimmerman, is being sued after he attempted to block a trademark application by a company that shares a name with his cat. Almost. The company is called Meowingtons and the cat Professor Meowingtons.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Zimmeran was unsuccessful when he tried to trademark the name of his cat, which he adopted in 2010 and which now enjoys quite the profile among his fanbase, with its own Instagram account. With that in mind, when a company selling cat-themed nonsense also called Meowingtons tried to trademark its name, the producer filed an objection.

While attempting to block the Meowingtons trademark, Zimmerman seemingly claimed that the company’s founder, Emma Bassiri, was a long-time Deadmau5 fan and was therefore aware of his celebrity cat.

Not so says Bassiri, who is now accusing Zimmerman of damaging her reputation and business with his claims to the Meowingtons name, and who has gone legal as a result. Said a spokesperson for the cat tat seller: “The act of naming your pet animal is not protected by the trademark laws of any country of which I am aware”.

They went on: “The mouse [they mean ‘the mau5’] is clearly the copycat in this case, and our legal team is confident that Ms Bassiri, a creative and hardworking entrepreneur who has built a successful online retailing business – Meowingtons.com – inspired by her love of cats, will prevail as the rightful and sole owner of the mark ‘Meowingtons'”.

But Zimmerman plans to fight back, his lawyer Dina LaPolt has confirmed, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “Deadmau5 has been extremely generous and attempted to resolve this matter amicably. However, as demonstrated by their legal action, they have no intention to address and remedy their intentional infringement and now attempt to extort and deprive our client of his rights and we will take all available measures to protect and enforce his rights”.

Meanwhile the producer himself also insists that he attempted to reach an agreement with Bassiri, but he adds that – now that she has gone legal – he is ready for a fight. “From the very beginning I was working to find a way to resolve this situation amicably”, he said. “Now I am forced to litigate this woman out of existence. Bye bye Emma Bassiri. I am going to protect the trademark I have been using since 2011”.

Professor Meowingtons was unavailable for comment.



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