Unlike copyright, which expires after a certain amount of years, trademark protection can endure in perpetuity, as long as Disney can claim that the character of Mickey Mouse is associated with the Walt Disney company itself. Ultimately, Mickey Mouse will still be a legally protected Disney product.
Even though the copyright for an old version of Mickey might be expiring soon, Disney does not have to worry about losing Mickey in its entirety. As long as Disney continues to tweak Mickey Mouse, it can get new copyrights and endlessly renew trademarks. So Mickey is here to stay!
As it stands at the time of this publication, The Walt Disney Company will officially relinquish its copyright on Steamboat Willie, effective January 1, 2024. But this isn't the first time Disney has faced Mickey's copyright expiration.
According to US copyright law, the rights for a character expire 95 years after the publication of the original work. Disney will lose the Mickey Mouse copyright for Steamboat Willie in 2024, since the short animated film was produced and distributed in 1928.
The beloved mouse that is nearly a century old will soon enter public domain — the original Mickey Mouse's copyright expires in 2024. This anthropomorphic mouse is recognizable even by the silhouette of his ears and, in some ways, has been the face of The Walt Disney Co. since his 1928 creation.
Mickey Mouse Copyright Expires in 2023 - What Happens Next?
What will Disney do when Mickey Mouse copyright expires?
The Mickey Mouse Copyright Runs Out in 2024 – What That Means for All of Us. 2024 will specifically pull “Steamboat Willie, “The Barn Dance,” and that original design of Mickey Mouse into the public domain in terms of copyright law.
Most notably for the toy industry, these public domain characters include Mickey Mouse, Superman, Winnie the Pooh, Bambi, Batman, and Bugs Bunny. Before you begin placing Batman logos on your toys, however, be mindful that the freedom to use these characters is limited to how they looked when they first appeared.
In the US, Popeye is considered “work for hire” because “Segar was an employee of King Features Syndicate when he introduced Popeye into the Thimble Theatre comic strip.” This means that Popeye will enter the public domain in the US on January 1, 2025.
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1929, films released in 1929, and other works published in 1929, will enter the public domain in 2025. Sound recordings that were published in 1924 will enter the public domain. The character Popeye the Sailor Man will enter the public domain in 2025.
A: The use of Popeye's likeness or image may potentially be subject to various intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark protections.
Today, animation historians refer to the original Tom and Jerry characters as Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry. Today, all of these cartoons are in the public domain.
But there are limits to what someone can do with public domain characters. For one thing, the character can only be used as it existed 95 years earlier. Let's take Superman, for example, who first appeared in DC's Action Comics #1 in 1938 and enters the public domain in 2033.
Copyright law in the United States dictates that works published after the 95th year of publication will no longer be affected by copyright. This means that characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Mickey Mouse, Captain America, and Batman will be entering the public domain within the next 15 years.
For example, artists who want to use Mickey Mouse in their creative works must first get permission from Disney (the current copyright holder) until November 2023. After that date, the copyright will expire, Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain, and artists will not need Disney's permission to use Mickey Mouse.
While it is likely one of the best-selling books ever published, the actual total sales since its first publication are unknown due to the many reductions and different versions. The story has been a public domain work in the U.S. since 1940.
As a direct result of Disney lobbying, in 1998 Congress overhauled the copyright system to retroactively extend everything created between 1923 and 1977 to a 95-year term. That meant Mickey Mouse is safe at Disney until 2023, while Spider-Man won't become public domain until 2057.
Disney argued that because Salten's original 1923 publication of the novel did not include a copyright notice, by American law it was immediately considered a public domain work.
Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Eeyore and Christopher Robin all became public domain on January 1 last year when the copyright on A.A. Milne's 1926 book, Winnie-the-Pooh, with illustrations by E.H. Shepard, expired.
Walt Disney Co. has controlled the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh since 1961 and kept depictions of Milne's talking animals true to the spirit of the family-friendly material. The copyright expired in January 2022. Since then, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends have been available to the public for other purposes.
Disney's competitor, Looney Tunes, will have their characters Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and the rest join the public domain over the course of the 2030s.
Various early works featuring Popeye will be public domain in different countries. The original E.C. Segar comic strips dating from 1929 to his death in 1938, for example, will be public domain in every country that observes a 50 or 70 years posthumous copyright term.
The Betty Boop character is a Fleischer trademark. But–Betty Boop 1930s movie posters were not copyrighted (or not renewed?) as standalone items, so are public domain. Fleischer tried to use its active trademark on the character to stop a third party's use of the ancient PD art. Judge said this was a no-go.
Felix's early shorts, including his first appearance in the 1919 short Feline Follies as "Major Tom," are in the public domain. However, the modernized and more instantly recognizable version of the character -- the one with the magic bag of tricks and a shorter, stubbier form -- is owned by Universal.
