UPDATED: Deadmau5 tells Toronto Fringe musical producers to cease and desist

by John Lucas on June 17th, 2015 at 5:11 PM

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You don't mess with deadmau5. Or, at the very least, you don't make a musical about him without at least checking whether he'd be okay with it or not.

As he revealed on Twitter today, the Canadian EDM superstar's legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to Toronto's Al Green Theatre in regards to a play called Deadmouse: The Musical, which is scheduled to be produced there as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival next month. The production features characters with names that play on those of deadmau5 and others connected with him. These include Joel Zimmermouse (Joel Zimmerman, aka deadmau5), CAT (Kat Von D, Zimmerman's former fiancée), David Goudda (David Guetta), and Avicheese (Avicii).

The musical's website does include the following disclaimer: "Just so there’s no confusion Deadmouse the Musical is not written by Deadmau5 or endorsed by Deadmau5. It is a parody. It was written out of love of house music culture." This caveat is apparently not enough to appease deadmau5, aka Zimmerman. According to the cease-and-desist letter, signed by attorney Dina LaPolt, the musical infringes on the musician's registered trademarks, and "Zimmerman has a proprietary right in the exclusive marketing of his personality, image and name for gain."

The letter demands that the theatre cease the production and promotion of the musical or face legal action.

Ironically, Zimmerman himself was targeted by the Walt Disney Company last year in a similar intellectual-property dispute. In September of 2014, Disney contacted the United States Patent and Trademark Office to file its opposition to an application by Zimmerman to register his "mau5head" emblem as a trademark. Disney claimed that deadmau5's emblem was likely to cause confusion because it is "nearly identical in appearance, connotation, and overall commercial impression" to its own trademarked iconography of Mickey Mouse, specifically the "Mouse Ears Mark".

Deadmau5 is scheduled to perform locallay at FVDED in the Park, which takes place at Holland Park in Surrey on July 3 and 4.

UPDATE: Turns out the above-quoted disclaimer was enough to appease deadmau5 after all. (Looks like we just happened to see it before he did.) Judging by this tweet, Zimmerman doesn't intend to take any further action.