Mickey Mouse Copyright 1995 expires? According to China Business News, a few days ago, according to foreign media reports, with the approaching of Mickey Mouse's 95-year copyright protection period, Disney may lose the exclusive copyright of the company's most representative cartoon image. According to the copyright protection law of the United States, the copyright protection period of Mickey Mouse is 95 years, which means that the image of Mickey Mouse will automatically enter the "public domain" from 2024. After that, artists can use the image of Mickey Mouse to create at will.
According to public information, according to the latest copyright law passed by the United States in 1998, the current copyright period of works created before 1923 has expired; For works created after 1923, the copyright term is the life of the creator plus 70 years after his death, and the copyright term of the company is 95 years from the date of publication of the work. Once the deadline has passed, these works belong to the "public domain" and are not protected by copyright law.
Disney's business model is based on IP. The first is to create a series of high-quality film works and IP, and then carry out secondary development on the basis of some well-known IP images to develop various derivatives, from authorized cooperation in various categories such as food, clothing, home appliances and even automobiles to large-scale projects such as Disneyland and cruise ships.
According to public information, Disney can earn $3.2 billion a year by printing Mickey on its products, which does not include the income from Disney products and theme parks. Previously, Disney often modified trademark details to extend the copyright term.
Is there any hope of losing Mickey Mouse Disney? To be honest, seeing that Disney is about to lose Mickey Mouse's copyright, many people are asking how important Mickey Mouse is to Disney. How do we think Mickey Mouse's copyright will be lost?
For Disney, the company can be said to have started without Mickey Mouse. When Disney created Mickey Mouse, there was no Disney Company, but with the development of the times, Mickey Mouse and Disney have complemented each other and merged into Disney's most important IP. Therefore, in this case, the spiritual significance of Mickey Mouse's copyright is far greater than the practical significance for Disney.
Mickey Mouse is actually constantly revising, and we want to extend the copyright by modifying the details. But by 2023, this practice is likely to gradually appear problems. Therefore, in this context, the competition for Mickey Mouse's copyright will gradually become fierce. We don't rule out that there will be a special company focusing on Mickey Mouse's copyright in the future. Once Mickey Mouse's copyright is released, it will start large-scale adaptation and application.
For Disney, the copyright of Mickey Mouse is very important, but even if the copyright of Mickey Mouse is lost, the impact on Disney is relatively limited. This is because Disney actually has the ability to constantly create new IP. For example, the Lin label that Chinese people are familiar with is a new IP created, and even Lin label has achieved a super explosion without even having its own comics.
Therefore, in this context, the risk of Disney itself is not great. Even if Mickey Mouse's copyright is completely lost, the impact on Disney will be very limited. At most, Disney's own income may be reduced. However, Disney will gradually replace the old IP with new IP, and Disney's own IP operation and innovation ability still occupy a strong market position.