Ownership

 

Mickey Mouse Club Theme

Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?
M-I-C-K-E-Y--M-O-U-S-E!
Hey there, Hi there, Ho there. You're as welcome as can be!
M-I-C-K-E-Y--M-O-U-S-E!

Is Mickey Mouse about to enter the public domain?

A headline in the Guardian recently claimed “Mickey Mouse Could Soon Leave Disney As 95-Year Copyright Expiry Nears”  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/03/mickey-mouse-disney-copyright-expiry.  The problem is that there is a confusion between a copyright, ©, and a trademark, ™. The copyright on Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse's first appearance on film, is about to enter the public domain. But that does not mean that every appearance, past and future, of Mickey Mouse is entering the public domain. Copyrights are about ownership; trademarks are about trust. Steamboat Willie is about to enter the public domain. As such, copies of Steamboat Willie can be used by anyone in the public and images, screen shots, from Steamboat Willie might also be used. But this does NOT mean that any and every image of Mickey Mouse is in the public domain. That is because Mickey Mouse is a trademark. A trademark is a mark of authenticity, which is conveyed by the owner of the trademark. The Lowenbrau Golden Lion trademark dates to 1383, long before 1928.

If you made an image using the trademarks of Lowenbrau, Shell, Stella Artois, Levi Strauss, Heinz, Peugeot, and Prudential or many others, which are all known, distinctive, and much older than 95 years, you should expect a cease and desist order .  And if you use an image of Mickey Mouse, expect a cease and desist order from The Walt Disney Corporation very quickly. You are making a claim that is not true.

A copyright is intended to protect the Intellectual Property, IP, of the owner for a period of time. That period of time in the United States is the life of the creator of the copyrighted material and his heirs, a period which US Law has most recently defined as 95 years. But a trademark is not about the ownership of property, it is about trust, that the property is what it claims to be. Mickey Mouse first appeared in Steamboat Willie in 1928. But an appearance, does not mean that the property, tangible or intellectual, has entered into the public domain. There is difference between ownership and trust, don’t confuse them. There is a difference between copyright and trademarks, don’t confuse them.