There's no way in hell they are actually letting him go into public domain, right?

Yes. But they keep him as a trademark. It's just the character and the actual works that go public domine.

Trademarks are weird.

I don't really understand how copyright or trademarking works

How could Mickey fall into the public domain if his company is still making regular use of him? I thought something pretty much had to be abandoned for a certain amount of time to fall into the public domain.

They regally cannot.
Well, I mean, at least in the states wouldn't.
Neither in the EU.

That was because the 80th anniversary was last year.

>How could Mickey fall into the public domain if his company is still making regular use of him? I thought something pretty much had to be abandoned for a certain amount of time to fall into the public domain.

Copyright has to do with works. Trademark has more to do with branding.

For what I understand, copyright is about the actual work, in this case the Steamboat Willy short. It should be free to watch on youtube, and archive.org and so on.
That doesn't mean you can go and print shirts with Mickey's face, because you don't own the trademark.

You copyright a work (like Steamboat Willie), you trademark a name and design ("Mickey Mouse", black on most of his body, shorts with 2 buttons etc). Copyright expires automatically 70 years after the death of the creator of the work (in the US, 50 years in most of the world), trademark can be renewed ad infinitum by the rightholders.

Mickey Mouse the character won't fall into public domain, but the cartoon Steamboat Willie will.

>90th anniversary actually

Could you print shirts with a frame from Steamboat Willy?

That's a good question actually. Imma go with yes but only if the frame doesn't feature Mickey himself, but I'm no copyright lawyer.

I have no actual idea. I'm literally going from what I half remember from another user in a thread a few weeks ago. But for what that user said, no, you cannot earn money with a trademarked character.

>I'm not entirely sure why they haven't already
Disney just doesn't want to set the precedent of having any of their works go into the public domain. They want to retain full ownership and control of all of their assets until the heat death of the universe.

If the character copyright is expired you can earn money with them - however you can't market the product with that character in any way that would infringe or confuse with the active trademark.

So, anyone will be able to include Mickey (with the latest design that falls into public domain) into a cartoon or comic, but they wouldn't actually be able to use "Mickey Mouse" or the "mickey ears" symbol on any title, cover or marketing that falls under the uses registered by Disney's trademarks.

Yeah but the thing is they barely make any money off those old works anymore. They make money off the trademarked characters.
Plus they could use some good PR in this department.

Sup LegalEagle. Where's my new Harvey Birdman gets Lawyered video?

>this thread again

Once again, as determined by case law by the US courts, Trademark does not offer the same protections as Copyright.
1. No it will not stop others from making new works with Mickey or using him to brand their merchandise/cafe/flowershop
2. No, it will not even stop people from using the name or image of Mickey Mouse on the cover or a new comic/movie/book. Trademark offers Disney protection from other people trying to pass their work off as authentic Disney material, so as long as they include something like "Warner Bros Presents" they're covered.
3. Disney hasn't been interested in extending copyright for ages now. The naive fears and greed that motivated them to extend copyright in the past have turned out to be stupid. It hasn't stopped the Chinese from making a million knockoff merchandise. It hasn't stopped anyone from drawing Mickey as Hitler or with a big black dick if they want because that's covered by parody. And more importantly, those things existing hasn't hurt his brand at all like they feared.
Meanwhile, due to copyright law companies like Disney are paying out the nose for music rights and treading on eggshells so they don't get sued for Ed Sheeran level nonsense music lawsuits. Had public domain gone naturally, Disney (and other companies) would be making off like a bandit with free music rights.
4. Most of this is largely unimportant because the only things entering the public domain are the earliest versions of Mickey, any ideas that came later will still be protected under copyright until their respective shorts enter public domain years later.

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The version that will fall into the public domain will be the Steamboat Willie style of art. It will still be a couple more decades after that before the full color Fantasia version follows.

For Mickey specifically there will probably be a lawsuit to determine that.

youtube.com/watch?v=7FeP9SDXGKE

Mickey's Surprise Party is in the public domain, one of the very few early works to be in the public domain.

Theoretically, as soon as Mickey Mouse, the character, becomes public domain, any public domain work will be able to be used as inspiration for new works with him, which would include this much later full color and sound version.

The US courts will have to determine this however, because no doubt Disney will argue that ideas (and ideas include designs) that were overdeveloped in earlier shorts would retain copyright protection because their earlier shorts haven't yet entered public domain.
However, in practice that would mean these later shorts are still in practice protected by copyright, which the courts would look dimly on.

But, it's a pretty unique situation that will resolve itself with enough time, so courts might side with Disney anyway.

>Pic Unrelated.
From my understanding, technically yes but..
>You can only use the old 1930s design as seen in the Steamboat Willie cartoon but you have to change it up a little to make it distinctive. Huge ixnay on using the modern design and any other design that proceeded the Steamboat Willie design
>You can't call him Mickey Mouse because Disney owns the trademark to that name. Name him something like I don't know Maurice or Mack
If you follow those three steps you don't have to worry about Disney's lawyer team.

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>You can't call him Mickey Mouse because Disney owns the trademark to that name. Name him something like I don't know Maurice or Mack

This is so wrong. You most certainly can use the name.
People have trademark on all famous public domain characters. Robin Hood, Sherlock, Tarzan, Snow White, etc
Disney themselves have multiple trademarks on them.

However these trademarks have never stopped people from making new works, be they movies or comics or opening a restaurant. Yes, you can't use Disney's Snow White (because she's under copyright) for your new movie, but her also being trademarked hasn't' ever stopped other people making Snow White films.

Then why can't Captain Marvel be Captain Marvel?

In the grand staring contest, DC blinked.

Marvel got ahold of the trademark. DC can still call the character Captain Marvel, but they don't want to because it causes complications when doing action figure packaging or advertisements.

The internet has made copyright obsolete. What's the point of lobbying congress if people are going to make shit like this either way?
youtube.com/watch?v=Y-dN_R99nHM

You can call him Mickey Mouse. The debate is about whether or not you can call him that on the cover or advertisements or whatever.

Tarzan is an iffy situation because Dynamite Comics did try to publish their own Tarzan comics by calling it Lord of the Jungle, and while ERB Inc sued, some sort of deal was made that resulted in Dynamite getting the rights to publishing Tarzan comic books.

That is an example of a company abusing the fact that courts are expensive as fuck even though they have no legal basis for their claim.

It's good that Dynamite got a better deal out of it in the end I guess. It's more profitable to have something that's 'authentic'.

Actually, the character as he appeared in those early shorts will be public domain.

So, Steamboat Willie, but not modern Mickey Mouse.