In a groundbreaking development, Disney has lost copyright protection for Mickey Mouse. The beloved character’s newfound status has led many people to wonder what has happened for this to be.

After 95 years of usage, Disney studios lost the copyright laws of Mickey Mouse’s original design, this means that now anybody has the right to commercialize material that includes the character, without having to consult Disney. Certainly, the loss of Mickey Mouse’s figure is a substantial point of inflection in the world of entertainment.

From a legal point of view, copyright protects intellectual property from being utilized in any media that does not belong to the company owner of such product, however, these rights have a lifespan, to be certain, after 70 years plus the years of life of the creator, all intellectual property becomes public property. This has led to the publication of characters such as Oswald the Bunny, Winnie the Pooh, and now: Mickey Mouse. 

“Intellectual property is not only that someone creates a form of artistic work… Consider trade, because if someone simply has that form of art to put it in their room, there is no problem, the problem comes when such slogan is used to market it without authorization,” Juan Carlos Ledezma Pito, Columbus School teacher and lawyer said.

Besides the legal viewpoint, Mickey Mouse’s entry into the public domain also brings about multiple challenges and opportunities for the world of advertising, entertainment, and graphic design, in the end, designers can freely utilize Mickey Mouse’s original design to create all sorts of media. Multiple websites including The Washington Post have confirmed the creation of movies, video games, and other content portraying the famous Disney icon; the interesting fact about these leaks is that none of these products are affiliated with Disney’s merchandise, showcasing the new status of Disney’s Mickey Mouse.

Nevertheless, new designers must be careful when using Mickey Mouse’s design when making content, as Disney still holds a considerable amount of authority over the figure, and although Mickey Mouse’s original design is now public, it doesn’t mean that the entirety of the character is, for the most part, Disney still has the rights over Mickey Mouse’s trademark, this means that if a foreign company uses any Mickey design to promote their brand, they will constitute a trademark infringement.

“This idea of having protection laws within almost all sorts of content, makes me believe that I must be more careful when using these sorts of characters whose copyrights have expired because I don’t know what kind of legal struggle I can get into since parts of the characters I use might still be protected by an external authority,” Andrew Shainker, designer and teacher at The Columbus School, said.

Despite the commercial and legal implications of Disney’s loss of Mickey Mouse’s copyright laws, the character will remain a timeless symbol of happiness for all who ever watched his cartoons. In fact, The Columbus School community is not exempt from this perspective, as many of us grew up learning from the teachings Mickey Mouse gave us, and I believe that just because Mickey Mouse is public, doesn’t mean that his figure will lose its meaning. 

“A lot of jokes and parodies will be made about Mickey Mouse, maybe someone will try to prop it up by making dumb movies. But in reality, nothing of significance will happen to the character and its impact on society. It’s been present in pop culture for far too long for something like this to change it,” Santiago Castaño, Grade 11 student, said.