🚨 Can you use famous cartoon characters like the Smurfs or Mickey Mouse on your products?
This is fairly a common question for businesses that print on clothing, other items like cups, pens etc. While some characters may enter the public domain (and become available for public use) after their copyright expires (like what happened recently to the 1928 film version of Mickey Mouse), it’s not that simple!
Taking Mickey Mouse for example, even though copyright from 1928 expired, this is not the case with all other movies, comics that have come out since (and Mickey Mouse from that year is looking different than the one we know today!).
Source of the pictures: Steamboat Willie, Mickey from 1928 (on the left), and The official Dysney fan club from 2015 (on the right).
Also, Mickey is protected with other types of intellectual property, like trademark, which can have unlimited time protection (if the trademark owner pays the fees). Copyright protects original creative works, while trademark protects brand names, signs in relation to a group of products and services being sold on the market.
So this means that copyright (from 1928) for Mickey Mouse might be in public domain, but Mickey’s name is protected as a trademark, which makes him off limits, without the consent from the trademark owner (which might be tricky and way-off budget for small companies).
You can use same logic for all cartoon characters or action heroes, from Smurf to Paw Patrol characters.
🔑 Key points to remember:
- Copyright might have limited time validity but that does not mean you can use expired copyright without limits
- Only certain versions of a cartoon character may be public domain, while others could still remain protected
- Trademarks cover names and signs, and can be valid for unlimited time (as long as you pay the fees
- Exceptions (like parody, informative use etc.) exist, but are limited.
For creators and businesses, always check IP rights before using well-known characters!
#Intellectualproperty #copyright #trademark #searching
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