With a brand awareness that exceeds 90% of the world's population, Mickey Mouse is still the most internationally known animated character for adults and children.
Almost 100 years after its creation, Mickey Mouse embodies the essence of the Disney company and between merchandising, remakes, games, accessories, theme parks and other services its exploitation is still worth billions of dollars.
Walt Disney's love for Mickey Mouse - which was also his main corporate asset - led him to study effective strategies to extend the intellectual property rights of his character and allow him to continue to exploit his image in an exclusive way.
Mickey Mouse and Copyright Protection in the USA
The first law protecting copyright in the USA was the Copyright Act of 1790 which guaranteed protection of creative works for 28 years.
With two subsequent legislative measures, Congress extended the protection and the protection period was extended to 42 years with the 1831 amendment and to 56 years with the 1909 amendment.
In the fall of 1928 Disney presented to the public the animated short film "Steamboat Willie" in which the character of Mickey Mouse appears for the first time. The short film - as an intellectual work - fell under the protection of the Copyright Act of 1909 and guaranteed protection for 56 years. The character of Mickey Mouse would then be protected until 1984 and then fall into the public domain. To prevent this from happening, Disney, as early as the early 1970s, began to put pressure on the U.S. Congress to amend existing copyright legislation. In 1976 the legislation was extensively amended and brought closer to European standards ensuring protection from a minimum of 56 years to a maximum of 75. Disney had thus managed to extend protection for his character for almost twenty years.
Despite this undisputed success, Disney's battle to continue to exploit exclusively its characters did not stop. Already in the early '90s the company started lobbying for copyright extension: this time not only the copyright of Mickey Mouse was at stake but also that of Minnie, Donald Duck, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto that would fall into public domain by the end of the first decade of the 2000s.
In the late 1990s, Congress made a further proposal to extend the term of protection under the Copyright Act.
The proposal provided for the extension of copyright for companies from 75 to 95 years.
Mickey Mouse and his band: new design for the extension of protection and trademark registration
In 1998 the reform was approved and the Copyright of Mickey and his colleagues was extended for another 20 years.
The date foreseen at the moment for the expiry of Mickey Mouse's copyright is 2024.
However, it should be noted that the Copyright expiration date is only that of Mickey Mouse with the design of the first version of Mickey Mouse, i.e. of Mickey Mouse as represented in "Steamboat Willie" and not that of later versions.
In the decades the Disney designers have taken great care to change the proportions of his physiognomy and to add accessories to the character (for example yellow gloves, different colors in clothing), to modernize the line and make it more in line with the changed taste of the time.
Nowadays children recognize Mickey Mouse in his current version or in those just before, but they will find it difficult to identify the same character in the Mickey Mouse of "Steamboat Willie".
In addition to the considerations made about the copyright of Mickey Mouse it is good to remember that the mascot is also protected as a registered trademark and guarantees Disney the possibility to use it in an exclusive and unlimited way all over the world with the only burden of providing for its renewal.
The remake of the "Classics" Disney
Starting in 2010 Disney has reproposed its "Classics" (which are adaptations of works by other authors whose rights have expired in many cases) presenting more modern versions of the most beloved cartoons ever.
It is reasonable to assume that Disney, proposing new versions of the classics, wanted to achieve multiple goals. Among them there is certainly that of attracting a large audience in the cinemas with the certainty of meeting the taste of a large group of fans - composed of adults and children - who already knew the story and were fans of the protagonists. Moreover, with the approaching copyright expiration - as it had happened with Mickey Mouse - the remake was the perfect opportunity to modernize the design of many characters and revisit them in a modern key (in some cases the animated drawings have been replaced by real actors).
In doing so Disney had the opportunity to replace old productions with new ones and to enjoy a new and entire period of protection for his creative works. In this way the company also had the opportunity to continue to use its characters for the vast assortment of merchandising or to license the rights of exploitation.
The "remake" strategy also allowed Disney to remove from the classics the script parts no longer in line with the times (for example sexist jokes about the role of the woman in the family context, family models in contrast with the evolution of society, scenes in which the protagonists were under the effect of harmful substances).
The story of Disney shows how to protect the intellectual property assets of a company is the foundation of a planetary success that has lasted for almost a century. Structuring effective IP protection must therefore be the basis of the corporate strategy of any company that wants to establish itself as a leader in its field for years to come.