It’s official! Disney’s copyright of the first-ever Mickey Mouse character has expired. Disney introduced us to the iconic mouse on Nov. 18, 1928, in his debut short film “Steamboat Willie.” Although copyright renewals have been approved over the past 95 years, it finally came to an end, as Mickey entered the public domain as of January 1, 2024.
Originally, the 1928 copyright provided 28 years of protection with the option to renew for an additional 28 years. Disney lobbied for a 20-year extension on copyright law, resulting in the Copyright Act of 1976. Twenty-two years later, the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, better known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, granted an additional 20 years to copyright. Works published prior to Jan. 1, 1978, would now hold a 95-year copyright from its publication date. All work published after Jan. 1, 1978, were granted copyright for the life of the creator plus an additional 70 years.
While Disney has lost their copyright protection for the original Mickey Mouse design, it still holds rights to later and current incarnations of the adored mouse. Over time, the character has undergone changes, such as changes to his nose and the length of his tail. One major difference besides the obvious black-and-white nature of the “Steamboat Willie” Mickey is his lack of white gloves. The version of Mickey with white gloves will be available in 2025, when the copyright for “The Opry House” is set to expire. In the 1940 animation “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” we saw Mickey drawn with pupils, and by the early 2000s, Mickey had become a 3-D character with a friendlier, rounder appearance.
Since the copyright’s expiration on Jan. 1, Mickey has popped up everywhere, including horror movie and game trailers as well as numerous memes across social media. Indie horror producers wasted no time in capitalizing on the character’s introduction to the public domain. Multiple movies involving the famous mouse have been teased, further garnering internet attention on Disney’s loss of copyright for the original Mickey.
As Disney continues to tweak the mouse, making him more modern with time, new copyrights are set in place. For this reason, the entertainment giant isn’t at all worried about the expiration of its legendary mouse character. Disney holds many other Mickey-related trademarks as protection, and while copyrights expire, trademarks don’t, so Disney will still be able to win cases involving trademark infringement when necessary.
