One is a colossus that spans theme parks, merchandise and films, with 150 Academy Awards, 225,000 staff and annual income of almost $90 billion.
The opposite is a third-generation household agency with 280 employees that packages sizzling sauce, soy beans, multicoloured sprinkles, an herb referred to as horsetail, six forms of panettone and 7 sorts of salt on the market in Paraguayan supermarkets.
But, Mickey is a family title to rival Disney throughout the little-touristed South American nation of 6.1 million. There’s the cartoon mouse too – additionally referred to as Mickey, and indistinguishable from Mickey Mouse – whose iconic ears adorn the gates of the corporate’s manufacturing unit, its vans and a mascot in heavy demand at Paraguayan weddings.
“However do not get it twisted. There’s the Disney Mickey,” mentioned Viviana Blasco, 51, one in all 5 siblings who run the enterprise, and “the Paraguayan Mickey, our Mickey.” Nonetheless, if the Paraguayan Mickey appears remarkably much like the Disney one, it will not be solely a coincidence. Paraguayans are notoriously artistic – some would say light-fingered – in terms of mental property. Factories churn out knockoff Nike, Lacoste and Adidas clothes. Paraguay’s instructional authorities warned final 12 months that Harvard College Paraguay was awarding bogus medical levels. (The college has no connection to the extra well-known Harvard College.)
Paraguay ranks 86th out of 125 nations in an index compiled by the Property Rights Alliance, a analysis institute primarily based in Washington, D.C., scoring 1.7 out of 10 for copyright safety. However Mickey, the Blasco household enterprise, has survived a number of authorized challenges levelled by Disney. Viviana Blasco denied that her household had appropriated Disney’s property. “We did not take it. We constructed a model over a few years. Mickey grew in parallel to Walt Disney.”
The Mickey saga started, Blasco mentioned, in 1935. Blasco’s grandfather, Pascual, the son of Italian immigrants, noticed a chance to unfold some pleasure – and switch a revenue. He opened a tiny store promoting fruit and selfmade gelato. It was referred to as Mickey. Precisely the place the concept got here from, mentioned Blasco, stays “one thing of a thriller.” However Pascual, she mentioned, usually vacationed in Buenos Aires – Argentina’s cosmopolitan capital, recognized for film theaters. Mickey Mouse was making his silver-screen debut, together with in “The Gallopin’ Gaucho” (1928). No matter its origins, Mickey was successful.
By now, a “peaceable coexistence” reigns between Mickey and its “US doppelganger”, mentioned the smaller firm’s lawyer. This truce was hard-won. In 1998, Paraguay’s Supreme Courtroom issued its ultimate ruling: Via a long time of uninterrupted use, Mickey had acquired the suitable to be Mickey. The Mickey trademark had been registered in Paraguay since not less than 1956 – and Pascual’s descendants had since renewed it. Nonetheless, Mickey’s authorized immunity in Paraguay, Blasco mentioned, won’t lengthen to promoting its merchandise overseas. “We have by no means tried.”
The opposite is a third-generation household agency with 280 employees that packages sizzling sauce, soy beans, multicoloured sprinkles, an herb referred to as horsetail, six forms of panettone and 7 sorts of salt on the market in Paraguayan supermarkets.
But, Mickey is a family title to rival Disney throughout the little-touristed South American nation of 6.1 million. There’s the cartoon mouse too – additionally referred to as Mickey, and indistinguishable from Mickey Mouse – whose iconic ears adorn the gates of the corporate’s manufacturing unit, its vans and a mascot in heavy demand at Paraguayan weddings.
“However do not get it twisted. There’s the Disney Mickey,” mentioned Viviana Blasco, 51, one in all 5 siblings who run the enterprise, and “the Paraguayan Mickey, our Mickey.” Nonetheless, if the Paraguayan Mickey appears remarkably much like the Disney one, it will not be solely a coincidence. Paraguayans are notoriously artistic – some would say light-fingered – in terms of mental property. Factories churn out knockoff Nike, Lacoste and Adidas clothes. Paraguay’s instructional authorities warned final 12 months that Harvard College Paraguay was awarding bogus medical levels. (The college has no connection to the extra well-known Harvard College.)
Paraguay ranks 86th out of 125 nations in an index compiled by the Property Rights Alliance, a analysis institute primarily based in Washington, D.C., scoring 1.7 out of 10 for copyright safety. However Mickey, the Blasco household enterprise, has survived a number of authorized challenges levelled by Disney. Viviana Blasco denied that her household had appropriated Disney’s property. “We did not take it. We constructed a model over a few years. Mickey grew in parallel to Walt Disney.”
The Mickey saga started, Blasco mentioned, in 1935. Blasco’s grandfather, Pascual, the son of Italian immigrants, noticed a chance to unfold some pleasure – and switch a revenue. He opened a tiny store promoting fruit and selfmade gelato. It was referred to as Mickey. Precisely the place the concept got here from, mentioned Blasco, stays “one thing of a thriller.” However Pascual, she mentioned, usually vacationed in Buenos Aires – Argentina’s cosmopolitan capital, recognized for film theaters. Mickey Mouse was making his silver-screen debut, together with in “The Gallopin’ Gaucho” (1928). No matter its origins, Mickey was successful.
By now, a “peaceable coexistence” reigns between Mickey and its “US doppelganger”, mentioned the smaller firm’s lawyer. This truce was hard-won. In 1998, Paraguay’s Supreme Courtroom issued its ultimate ruling: Via a long time of uninterrupted use, Mickey had acquired the suitable to be Mickey. The Mickey trademark had been registered in Paraguay since not less than 1956 – and Pascual’s descendants had since renewed it. Nonetheless, Mickey’s authorized immunity in Paraguay, Blasco mentioned, won’t lengthen to promoting its merchandise overseas. “We have by no means tried.”