The Impact Of Mickey Mouse Public Domains On Intellectual Property

Abstract

Disney decided to start counting Mickey Mouse characters based on publications, so Mickey Mouse was
protected starting in 1928, under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Copyright Act, the duration of
copyright, which was increased to 95 years. Then public domain of the Mickey Mouse character should
have started in 2023, but based on copyright law in general, for example TRIPS related to copyright in
article 12 concerning protection requirements, where there is a phrase, recorded works will be protected
from the end of the calendar year registration, meaning that all formal copyright protection is calculated
from the end of the year, so that officially the Mickey Mouse character is protected until December 31st
2023 and becomes public domain in January 2024. Until now, discussions related to the rights of
animated characters or cartoons revolve around their protection in intellectual property rights.
However, as a result of limiting the use of Mickey Mouse for too long, the use of the public domain has
a rigid impression and still imposes restrictions like property rights in general