Atlanta Braves pick fight with Pixar princess

• Pixar Films
• THE NEW FACE OF THE ATLANTA BRAVES? Pixar’s Princess Merida

The name “Atlanta Braves” has picked up its share of controversy over the years and has just started another. In March, The Walt Disney Company sought to trademark the name Brave as the title of Pixar Films’ upcoming film about the adventures of young Princess Merida in Braveheart-era Scotland. However, as quoted in Stitch Kingdom:

The Atlanta National League Baseball Club, owners of the Atlanta Braves, formally filed an objection to many of the trademark applications. Although trademarks are specific to their singular and plural forms and the Braves do not possess any trademarks for the word BRAVE (only BRAVES), the organization believes that damages will occur as a result of Disney’s trademarks being approved as they have used the singular form before on merchandise and insist it is common for fans, media, et al to use the singular form when referring to a single player, whereas the pluralized form refers to the entire team. Private negotiations between The Walt Disney Company and the Atlanta National League Ball Club are currently taking place in regards to several of the objected filings with the ball club intending to file an objection against yet another of the registrations.

Now, none of us are fancy big city lawyers here, but it sounds like the Atlanta National League Ball Club believes its fans will struggle to distinguish between a computer-animated Scots princess with a shock of red hair, and a team of male, flesh-and-blood professional athletes. It’s not like the team is named the “Atlanta Wee Bonny Lasses.” But that’s not a bad idea.