>X character is public domain
>Use X character in your work
>Can't use their name, the name of any other existing characters, or the original title
Wtf is this legal black magic?
Don't trademarks completely defeat the purpose of the Public Domain?
You can make a Mickey Mouse whatever you just can't profit from it.
Are you sure? I thought it was more like "You can make a Mickey Mouse whatever, you just can't show it to anyone".
You can't "damage" a trademark either. If it threatens to cause losse to the trademark owner, your ass is on the line. And trademark, unlike copyright, needs to be defended or else you'll lose it. So those companies don't even have a choice.
Mickey Mouse is still in copyright. And also that's not true.
OP is talking about trademarking like what Disney has done with Snow White. And the thing is, it's a bluff.
Disney owning a trademark on an IP once copyright expires only protects THEIR right to profit from it, it doesn't actually inhibit anyone else, as long as it's not presented as a Disney product. And even then that's only within the United States and maybe a few other jurisdictions that have a trademark registry.
Not only can anyone at all publish a book of fairy tales containing the story of Snow White, which is purely a novelization of the 1937 movie, for profit, provided a reasonable man would not be convinced he was buying official Disney merchandise. But Disney wouldn't even bring a case against anyone who did because the bad publicity would cost them orders of magnitude more than the minuscule loss of book sales.
>bad publicity
Yidsney doesn't care. They sued for far less.
If it's a parody of the character you can profit from it.
There are so many disneypornland dot com similar sites dude
What exactly is current Mickey Mouse's character? I can describe Donald (hothead, arrogant) Goofy (goofy, clumsy, jolly) but describing Mickey? Uh... he's...uhhh... ?
He's an everyman.
The straight man.
>straight
not for long :^)
He has a foot fetish.
Idk but I liked those shorts they made awhile back.
Yeah, those are great. Very pretty artstyle.
For me, it's potatoland: https://youtu.be/bElcEMabhoU
Why wait until 5 years before losing exclusive rights to make kino with these characters?
Oh who'm I kidding, these shorts aren't really that good, they're just really stylish.
Mickey always sucked never understood the appeal of him or his friends. I just used him in the OP because I remembered I needed a picture to start a thread and he's the posterchild for copyright and I already had this gif lying around.
>Mickey always sucked never understood the appeal of him or his friends
Same here. I mean when I was a kid I did think that Disney World was "cool" even though I never went there, and I understood how Disney was an important trademark that made "good" movies. But I never cared about Mickey or the rest, they were just a logo or a mascot to me. Watching a movie or a show starring Mickey or Goofy made no sense to me.
Disney World is cool even as an adult.
Or at least it used to be. Like 10-20 years ago.
I'm not gonna lie, I low key want to go to Disney World as an adult. Especially when I know that many of the single and child-less adults that go there on their own are even more of a sperg than I am, and that's saying a lot. The only problem is that it's so expensive and I feel awkward about paying too much for an experience that will be over way too fast.
>I low key want to go to Disney World as an adult
>low key
I don't speak ebonics. Da frick does "low key" mean.
One of the lower keys on a piano.
It's the opposite of high key.
Captcha DXHAX
Who let gramps on 4chin?
I live near Disney World and before Covid would go there twice a week, typically stoned off my ass. It's a lot of fun.
He's a badass ninja from the game Kingdom Hearts.
homer simpson
You can use the name but not in the title of your project. Like how Captain Marvel had to change the name of the comic to Shazam because somehow Marvel trademarked Captain Marvel.
They didn't trademark it. They had a long legal battle over the name, and DC somehow ultimately lost, despite the fact that Charleston/DC's Captain Marvel predates not only Marvel's Captain Marvel/Mar-Vell, but also Marvel comics as a whole by like thirty years. For a while the compromise was that DC could still call the character Captain Marvel, but had to name the comic something else. Eventually they just called the character Shazam.
Is it true that Disney is going to lose Mickey? What will this mean, bros? How can third parties finally make use of Mickey? What will they do? Are we gonna see a bunch of random Mickey Mouse movies not made by Disney?
No, Steam Boat Willie will be public domain. That means the first cartoon will no longer be property of Disney Corporation. What that means is that only THAT version of Mickey mouse ok that specific cartoon will be free. All other Mickey Mouse designs will still be copyrighted to Disney until they expire in the future.
there is no copyright law, there is only Roman Law
Be original chud.