May 22

Mighty Mouse Lawsuit

Remember the Mighty Mouse? No, not Apple's mouse, but the cartoon superhero! Almost two decades ago, I was watching the cartoon series, I must admit I tried not to miss a single episode. Oh, those days! The Ninja Turtles, the Mighty Mouse, and all the other great cartoon series... but let's get back to 2008, shall we? Now, it seems the Mighty Mouse name is the reason behind a new lawsuit!

Currently, the Mighty Mouse name is shared by Apple and CBS, but a company called Man and Machine decided to go against both of them, claiming CBS didn't have any rights to license the name to the Cupertino-based company. OK, but who is Man and Machine, after all?

Man and Machine is a small company specialized in producing hygenic water- and chemical-resistant keyboards and mice for hospitals and laboratories, already holding a trademark for use of the Mighty Mouse name for an interface controller.

While they claim the term was used in 2004 for the first time, their trademark request was filed in December 2007, while CBS' trademark, also covering Apple's device, was filed in July 2007, indicating the time of its first use to be dated in 2005, when the Mighty Mouse from Apple came out.

My guess is that this whole deal will be solved off-court, but it's worthy being noticed, especially since it reminded me about one of my childhood heroes...