LOS ANGELES: Almost a century after his big-screen debut, Mickey Mouse enters the public domain on Monday (Jan 1), opening the floodgates to potential remakes, spin-offs, adaptations... and legal battles with Disney.

The copyright on Steamboat Willie — a short, black-and-white 1928 animation that first introduced audiences to the mischievous rodent who would become emblematic of American pop culture — expires after 95 years, on Jan 1, under US law.

The date has loomed large on the calendars of everyone from filmmakers, fans and intellectual property lawyers to Disney executives, who in the past helped lobby to change law to prolong US copyright terms.

“This is a deeply symbolic, highly anticipated moment,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain.

Anyone is now free to copy, share, reuse and adapt Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy — another 1928 Disney animation — and the early versions of the characters that appear within them, including Mickey and Minnie.

A vital caveat is that later versions of the characters, like those in the 1940 film Fantasia, are not in the public domain, and cannot be copied without a visit from Disney’s lawyers.

But artists would be free, for instance, to create a “climate change awareness version” of Steamboat Willie in which Mickey’s ship runs aground on a dry riverbed, or a feminist retelling where Minnie takes the wheel, said Jenkins.

That would echo imaginative re-uses of other characters whose copyrights recently expired such as Sherlock Holmes and Winnie-the-Pooh.

‘Legal skirmishes’

But it will not be plain sailing.

In a statement, Disney said it would “continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright”. Indeed, the version of Mickey in Steamboat Willie is a spindly, roguish creature which would not be recognisable to many younger viewers.

“What’s in the public domain is kind of a frightful little black-and-white animal,” said Justin Hughes, a professor at Loyola Law School.

He added: “The Mickey Mouse that is most familiar to current generations of Americans will remain under copyright protection.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some legal skirmishes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Disney out there educating people on that point.”

Cease-and-desist letters could be sent to artists producing “high-budget fan art” if they use elements from later Mickey cartoons, such as red shorts and white gloves, he predicted.

Additionally, while the copyright has expired, the trademark has not.

Copyrights prevent the unlicensed copying of the creative work itself, for example books, films and characters. They expire after a set time.

Trademarks guard the source of a work, preventing anyone else from making a product that could mislead consumers into thinking it came from the original author. They can be renewed indefinitely.

Disney said it would “work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorised uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters”.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2023