Disney has been sued for implementing mental property rights on the Mickey Mouse from the 1928 animated quick Steamboat Willie. This depiction of Mickey Mouse, which was the primary animated quick to function each Mickey and Minnie Mouse, entered the general public area in 2024, that means that others might use that model of the character with out the specific permission of Disney.
Nevertheless, private harm regulation agency Morgan & Morgan has filed a lawsuit towards Disney, saying the Disney authorized group provided resistance to a deliberate nationwide promoting marketing campaign that featured each Minnie and Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie. Morgan & Morgan is in search of a courtroom order verifying that their business doesn’t violate Disney’s rights to the character.
Within the advert, we see the animated quick’s basic picture of Mickey whistling as he steers his boat, till it crashes, revealing that he was driving on the street and bumped into Minnie’s automotive. Minnie then calls the regulation agency. At each the start and finish of the advert, a voice-over says that the video was not accredited by Disney, together with textual content to the identical impact.
The lawsuit was filed in Florida federal courtroom final week, citing Disney’s “historical past of aggressive enforcement of mental property rights” and its “refusal to deny an intent to interact in enforcement towards” the Morgan & Morgan regulation agency.
In the meantime, again in July, Disney sued the jewellery firm Satéur over its use of the Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse design in merchandise, noting that clients have filed complaints concerning the high quality of the merchandise, which Disney argued might hurt its status. A part of the grievance that Disney filed for that lawsuit reads:
“As Disney has acknowledged publicly, whereas copyright expired within the Steamboat Willie movement image, Mickey Mouse will proceed to play a number one function as a worldwide ambassador for Disney.”
Disney does nonetheless personal the copyright for different iterations of Mickey Mouse in addition to Steamboat Willie.
What This Means For Steamboat Willie In The Public Area
As soon as the copyright expired on Steamboat Willie on the finish of 2023, the rule of public area is supposed to permit others to make use of the model of Mickey Mouse in that quick with out in search of permission from Disney or paying royalties. That is how John Oliver’s Final Week Tonight created its personal Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse mascot and the 2025 horror film Screamboat happened.
This lawsuit from Morgan & Morgan towards Disney pushing again towards using Mickey Mouse might present a take a look at on whether or not there are potential limits to the general public area.
Our Take On The Disney Lawsuit
Disney is among the largest companies on the planet, and one which could be very protecting of its model. Even with Steamboat Willie within the public area, it seemingly should not be a shock that Disney would see what it might probably do to stop undesirable use of its most well-known character.
Nevertheless, the timing is not nice. It has been a tough week for Disney within the courtroom of public opinion following the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel (although the late evening host returned on September 23). Their alleged makes an attempt to stop using a model of their character that’s formally within the public area is one other not-so-great search for the corporate.