How “Paraguayan Mickey” beat Disney in court and became a national success

One of them is a giant that owns theme parks, products and films, has 150 Oscar statuettes, has 225,000 employees and has annual revenue of almost US$90 billion.

The other is a third-generation family company, which has 280 employees and packages pepper sauce, soy, colored candies, an herb called mackerel, six varieties of panettone and seven types of salt, all destined for sale in supermarkets in Paraguay.

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However, Mickey is a name as well-known as Disney itself in the less touristy South American country of 6.1 million inhabitants. In fact, someone coming from abroad could think that the two companies are partners.

The Mickey team wears red uniforms and uses a family-friendly slogan: “You have to be good!”

In addition, there is also the cartoon mouse — also called Mickey and indistinguishable from Mickey Mouse — whose iconic circular ears adorn the company’s factory gates, its trucks, as well as a mascot that is in great demand to participate in weddings in Paraguay.

But don’t be fooled,’ said Viviana Blasco, 51, sitting at her desk in the capital, Asunción, surrounded by stationery, t-shirts and coffee mugs printed with the Mickey brand.

There is “Disney’s Mickey and the Paraguayan Mickey, our Mickey,” explained Blasco, who runs the business with his other four brothers.

Still, if the Paraguayan Mickey looks a lot like the Disney one, that may not be a mere coincidence.

“Paraguayans are very creative — you could even say a little dishonest — when it comes to intellectual property.”

Factories produce counterfeit Nike, Lacoste and Adidas clothing. Last year, Paraguayan education authorities warned that the “Harvard University of Paraguay,” located in Ciudad del Este — the country’s second-largest city and a hotbed of counterfeiting — was awarding fake medical degrees. (The institution has no connection with the renowned Harvard University.)

In an index prepared by the Property Rights Alliance, a research institute based in Washington, DC, Paraguay ranks 86th out of 125 countries, with a score of 1.7 on a scale of 0 to 10, regarding copyright protection.

But Mickey, a Blasco family company, survived several lawsuits filed by Disney. It is a remarkably esteemed institution, which celebrates Paraguay’s history, gastronomy and national identity with great affection. Blasco claims that the Mickey saga began in 1935.

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Paraguay had recently faced an intense conflict with Bolivia over the Chaco, a region of sun-parched scrublands. An earlier conflagration, the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70), saw Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay exterminate half of Paraguay’s population.

The country was still recovering from both. Blasco’s grandfather, Pascual, the son of Italian immigrants, identified an opportunity to spread some joy — and profit. He opened a small store where he sold fruit and homemade ice cream. She was called Mickey. Exactly where the idea came from is still “a mystery,” explains Blasco.

But she says Pascual used to vacation in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s cosmopolitan capital, known for its cinemas that showed international films. At that time, Mickey Mouse made his film debut, including in ‘The Gallopin’ Gaucho’ (1928).

“He must have seen the famous mouse on one of his trips”, analyzes Blasco.

Whatever his origins, Mickey was a success. A few years later, Pascual opened Mickey Ice Cream, Café and Confectionery.

In 1969, Mickey was already selling rice, sugar and baking soda in packaging now decorated with the eponymous mouse. In 1978, the company moved to a factory covered by a 62-meter illuminated Christmas tree. Blasco denies that his family appropriated Disney property.

“We didn’t steal the mascot. We have built a brand over many years. Mickey grew in parallel with Walt Disney and became deeply rooted in Paraguayan culture”, explains Blasco.

This affinity was evident in several stores selling Mickey products in Luque, a working-class suburb of Asunción.

Mickey’s mascot was taking photos with fans, including pediatric nurse Lilian Pavón, 54. “I’m a fan of Mickey’s products,” he said, praising, in particular, the company’s breadcrumbs and oregano.

But his feelings for the 7-foot felt rodent go beyond condiments, he added, as Mickey greeted shoppers with fist bumps and handed out ring-shaped cookies called chipa.

As children, she and her friends collected Mickey Mouse pencil cases, notebooks and stickers. They dreamed of visiting Disneyland or Walt Disney World. But the cost of flying to Anaheim, California, or Orlando, Florida, made the pilgrimage impossible, even as adults, Pavón said.

It makes me happy just to see Mickey in places like this,’ he added, as he passed through the butcher’s aisle at El Cacique, a popular supermarket.

Mickey resonates with Paraguayans’ sense of nostalgia, explained Euge Aquino, 41, a TV chef and influencer who uses the brand’s ingredients to prepare homemade recipes, such as “pastel mandi’o” (cassava and beef empanadas). .

Paraguay is not known for its haute cuisine, he acknowledged. It is a flat, warm place and very far from foreign gastronomic trends.

“Our climate is very difficult, so you grow and eat what you can find here”, analyzed Aquino.

What gives the most is cassava and corn, which are sacred to the native Guarani people. But what local dishes lack in glamor they make up for in flavor and meaning, he said.

Paraguayans still knead cassava starch and grind corn to make chipa during Holy Week. They infuse their yerba mate with aromatic herbs such as boldo, Tê-de-burro and begonias. They fill their soups, stews and casseroles with anise, saffron, cloves, nutmeg, paprika and coriander, all supplied by Mickey in serving-sized sachets.

“A moment, a flavor, an aroma is a memory,” pondered Aquino, as he browned a “Paraguayan soup” in his oven, a spongy broth made with Mickey’s corn flour. “And that memory can generate so many emotions. It’s your mother’s or grandmother’s food.

According to her, Mickey’s popularity also has a lot to do with the mascot who distributes sweets outside the factory gates every Christmas, a tradition that dates back to 1983.

Aquino recalls that she once got goosebumps while waiting outside the factory during the annual festivities in the early 1990s.

“There were no social networks, there were no cell phones, there was nothing,” recalls Aquino. “Then all of a sudden Mickey appears and you’re like, ‘Wow!’ It was crazy.”

“He’s a real star,” he said.

Today there is a “peaceful coexistence” between Mickey and his North American look-alike, says Elba Rosa Britez, 72, a lawyer at the smaller company.

This truce was achieved with great effort.

In 1991, Disney filed a trademark infringement lawsuit with the Paraguayan Ministry of Business and Industry, which was rejected. The company then took legal action, but in 1995, a trademark court ruled in favor of Mickey.

Disney appealed again, taking the dispute to Paraguay’s highest court.

There, a judge agreed that Paraguayans could easily confuse Disney Mickey and Paraguayan Mickey.

But Disney did not have a “legal loophole”, explained Britez.

The Mickey brand had been registered in Paraguay since at least 1956, and Pascual’s descendants have renewed it since then, without any protest from the multinational.

In 1998, the Supreme Court of Paraguay issued its final decision. After decades of uninterrupted use, Mickey acquired the right to be Mickey.

“I jumped for joy,” remembers Britez.

Mickey’s legal immunity in Paraguay may not extend to the sale of its products abroad, Blasco acknowledged. “We never tried.”

The Paraguayan company that represented Disney declined to comment on the matter. Disney officials did not respond to requests for comment. During a recent national holiday, the man wearing the Mickey mascot costume was keeping warm in an air-conditioned metal container located inside the company’s factory, which also serves as its office.

Blasco asked The New York Times not to reveal Mickey’s identity to the Paraguayan public to preserve some of the “magic” behind the mascot.

“Seeing the smiles on the children’s faces is priceless’, said the mascot, before adjusting his bow tie and heading towards his admiring audience.

“Mickey!” they shouted. “Mickey!”

Mickey posed for photos, sprinkled candy on baby carriages and passed popcorn through car windows to wide-eyed children. Bus drivers honked their horns. A road construction crew waved. A worker leaned out of a garbage truck, raised his fist and shouted, “Hey, Mickey!”

Some of those who lined up to meet the mascot said Mickey’s triumph in the David vs. Goliath battle against Disney filled them with national pride.

“It’s cool,” laughed housewife Maria del Mar Caceres, 25. “At least we won at something.”