The “Steamboat Willie” version of Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain.
As of Jan. 1, 2024, ninety-five years after “Steamboat Willie’s” creation on Nov. 18, 1928, United States copyright law has expired over the first versions of Mickey Mouse.
According to the U.S Copyright Office, under the Copyright Act of 1975, original works created after Jan. 1, 1978, stay under copyright for the duration of the author’s lifetime plus 70 years. In the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, characters such as Mickey Mouse in “Steamboat Willie” created before 1978 were extended to 95 years.
“The copyright that just expired only applies to one particular stylized version of Mickey Mouse that was in “Steamboat Willie.” That’s it. There are no other Mickey Mouse characters. It’s not the revised Mickey Mouse that you would see in the 1940s Fantasia or the one on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse early in the 2000s,” said Pamela Deese, Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at American University’s Washington College of Law and partner at the law firm, Arent Fox Schiff.
According to Cecilia Liu, an attorney at the Lee and Xiao law firm, the tweaking of Mickey Mouse images is subject to copyright. In 2024, only the “Steamboat Willie” Mickey Mouse will be in the public domain.
“It’s impossible to complete something completely different from all previous creations. So, the question is whether Disney has created something innovative enough. It could be a legal strategy for Disney to adjust and revise the older versions and extend the protections in another way,” Liu said.
According to Liu, by constantly creating new characters, the copyright of Mickey Mouse is “extended.”
“Disney has availed itself as many creators have; they do a new song, a new version of the song, a new movie, and a revision of a book, and they get copyright protection. It can be used in various ways to create additional protection,” Deese said.
Now that “Steamboat Willie’s” Mickey Mouse has entered the public domain, people can use its likeness to create their creative works. However, Disney still holds the trademark over Mickey Mouse.
“You could draw a little character that looked like the public domain Mickey Mouse from ‘Steamboat Willie,’ but you can’t call it Mickey Mouse because Disney will come after you. And if you use a word that is similar to Mickey Mouse, they’ll have a claim for confusion,” Deese said.
Carlmont’s Art Showcase Club member Lily Stutzin says that, in practice, many artists disregard or are unaware of intellectual property law.
“I think no one pays attention to that. There’s so much fan art of people from big movies and stuff like that. That may not be okay, but everyone does it anyway,” Stuzin said.
You could draw a little character that looked like the public domain Mickey Mouse from ‘Steamboat Willie,’ but you can’t call it Mickey Mouse because Disney will come after you. And if you use a word that is similar to Mickey Mouse, they’ll have a claim for confusion.
— Dr. Pamela Deese
Commercial fan art, which infringes on copyright law, is drawn by artists into their own stories and posted on social media, according to Stuzin.
Additionally, using public domain characters in production rather than independent artists has inspired works such as the movie “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” Released one year after the initial release of the Winnie-the-Pooh character into the public domain, this movie uses the likeness of the childhood character Winnie the Pooh to tell a horror movie.
Two weeks after “Steamboat Willie’s” Mickey Mouse release into the public domain, there have been two announcements of horror Mickey Mouse.
“I think Mickey Mouse himself has a pretty active fan base. And I feel like when it gets released into the public domain, it’s going to be used all over,” Stutzin said.
Works such as “Winnie-the-Pooh” and “Steamboat Willie” entering the public domain aren’t uncommon, according to Deese. According to the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, thousands of works were released in 2024.
“But every single year, works that have been around for a long time enter the public domain. This isn’t so unusual; it’s just that this is Disney,” Deese said.
With these public domain works, people can add to them and make them their original work, just like how Walt Disney, creator of “Steamboat Willie,” was inspired by previous works before him, according to Liu.
“If you truly want to use this mouse, you could add your own design to it and even try to register copyright protection on your own design. Even though it is based on ‘Steamboat Willie,’ the new part will be your own innovative creation,” Liu said.
