In 1928, copyrights lasted for 28 years, with the option for renewal of another 28 years. As of 2023, Mickey Mouse was published almost 95 years ago. The copyright of the original Mickey Mouse character – as it appeared in “Steamboat Willie” – expires on January 1, 2024.
Yes, but it's complicated. Other Disney characters will enter the public domain when their copyrights are up. We are just at the beginning of that process as what's expiring in the next couple years are films from the late 1920s.
Disney's trademarks will still be protected as, unlike copyrights, they have no time limit. Therefore, it is possible that you may not be able to use the name Mickey Mouse, but okay to use his image. Elements of Mickey's appearance will still be protected. For example, Mickey did not wear those white gloves until 1925.
Adam Ruins Everything - How Mickey Mouse Destroyed the Public Domain
Is Winnie-the-Pooh public domain now?
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.
The children's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum in 1900 is in the public domain. This follows the general rule that any work published before 1923 is in the public domain. The film, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland and directed in 1939 by Victor Fleming is NOT in the public domain.
To utilise Disney characters without violating their rights, you must obtain permission from The Walt Disney Company or its subsidiaries. Its characters are protected by copyright and trademark laws, and unauthorised use can lead to legal consequences.
"Tinker Bell" appeared as a character in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, first staged in 1904, and so the parties were in agreement that under copyright law, both the name and the character are in the public domain.
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.
As per the US copyright law, the rights to characters expire 95 years after publication (for works published or registered before 1978). Thus, Disney, which is also called the House of Mouse due to the character, may lose the rights to the character.
What will happen when Mickey Mouse becomes public domain?
U.S. copyright laws grant the creator of content ownership for 95 years, which means famous works eventually enter the public domain. Legally, that means anyone could now copy and reproduce the 1928 version of Mickey Mouse without permission.
Any future iterations of Mickey Mouse – including any showing Mickey Mouse in color – are still under Disney's control. But the copyright on the Steamboat-Willie-version will run out in 2024 after 95 years. Initially, copyrights only lasted 28 years.
Can I put Disney characters on a shirt and sell it?
If you're planning on selling Disney products or characters, you must obtain an official license from the Walt Disney Company. This means that your product must be expressly authorized by the company to be sold legally; without this authorization, you may face hefty fines and other legal consequences.
A lot of people believe it isn't an infringement issue to sell products that incorporate Disney characters or use a Disney character's name in their product name. However, any item being sold that incorporates Disney's copyrighted or trademarked material is illegal.
Disney owns numerous copyrights that restrict the use of its character names and images by others. Copyright gives Disney exclusive rights to use the characters. For example, Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Marvels, Elsa, etc. It holds Merchandising Rights to exploit, sell, license its movies and character images.
Everything Mark Twain wrote that was published before 1923 is now in the public domain and therefore may be freely quoted or reproduced in its entirety, without permission or fees.
Since Shrek was created by DreamWorks Animation in 2001, its copyright will not expire until at least 2096. Therefore, it will not enter the public domain for many decades. Who owns Shrek? Shrek is owned by DreamWorks Animation which is part of Comcast's Universal Pictures and NBCUniversal.
Many classic creations will be following in Winnie the Pooh's footsteps and entering the public domain in the next few years. In addition to Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore have already been released into the public domain. Following them, Tigger's copyright protection is set to lapse in 2024.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1910, before the cutoff of January 1, 1928. The longest-living author of this work died in 1943, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 79 years or less.
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.
