Mickey Mouse's Copyright Ends: Harness New Design Opportunities?
Have you heard the news?
The OG Mickey Mouse, from the 1928 hit Steamboat Willie, just waltzed into the public domain on January 1, 2024. For the first time in, oh, nearly a century, anyone can use the OG version of everyone's favorite mouse in their projects without having to ask Disney. That's right, the house of mouse has lost a member of its house. (Well, the earliest version, but who's counting?)
The company still clings to the copyrights for Mickey's later makeovers. But as for Mickey Mouse 1.0, he's up for grabs, ready to be remixed, reimagined, and yeah, even recast in slasher movies, a horror game, and a custom AI generator.
It's a wild, creative free-for-all out there, sparking a juicy debate around intellectual property (IP), a concept that's not just a big deal in business but also a massive playground for us designers.
So, let's jump in, shall we?
Understanding Intellectual Property
In layman's terms, intellectual property is like a legal coat that gives creators superpowers over their creations. These rights are the reason why Disney had exclusive rights to Mickey Mouse for decades.
IP comes in different forms, the three most common are:
Copyrights that protect creative works like books, music, and yes, cartoons.
Trademarks that protect brand identifiers like logos and slogans.
Patents that protect inventions, typically a product or a process.
Each has its role in the business strategy. Patents can spark innovation by rewarding inventors, while trademarks help build brand identity and loyalty.
But IP isn’t just a business tool; it's a delicate dance between rewarding innovators and not stifling the public's creative spirit. Too little protection and creators can't cash in on their genius. Too much, and innovation takes a nap. Talk about walking a tightrope.
The entry of Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse into the public domain is a great example of maintaining this balance — a long-protected work finally becomes a common resource, sparking new works of art and business opportunities. What’s not to like?
The Impact of Intellectual Property on Business and Society
Respecting IP is important. It ensures that the brains (and companies) behind great ideas can keep innovating and continue to invest in their original ideas.
In tech land, companies like Apple treat patents like gold, safeguarding everything from retail shelves to shopping bags to keep their brand untarnished. This isn't just an Apple thing; it's the same story across all industries, including fashion. Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, for instance, even wrote the first patent herself, which became the foundation of what is now a global shapewear brand worth more than a billion dollars.
While protecting IP can fill company coffers, loosening the IP reins can also unleash waves of innovation and new wealth. For example, Amazon's one-click buying patent expired in 2017, and boom, online retailers everywhere jumped on the bandwagon. And why wouldn't they, when it's shown to increase customer spending by a wallet-opening 28.5 percent? That's what you call a one-click wonder.
Intellectual property is also essential for medicine development and health tech such as DNA sequencing. This space is dominated by San Diego-based Illumina; however, as some of its patents expired recently, the door for more competition opened up, driving down the prices of the technology. The same might happen in the near future with electric vehicles as some of the early patents for special lithium batteries are set to come to an end this year.
And let's not forget the arts. When "The Great Gatsby" waltzed into the public domain in 2021, it opened the floodgates for a barrage of reimaginings, from Broadway musicals to TV dramas and graphic novels.
Why Designers Should Care About (Expired) Intellectual Property
For us in the design world, IP isn't just another acronym; it's a treasure of opportunity and responsibility:
Freedom and Responsibility: We now have the freedom to use Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse – and all other creations the same age or older — in our work. However, there's an ethical dimension to using culturally significant characters or stories. While we have the liberty to reimagine them, doing so with cultural sensitivity and artistic integrity is essential. With great power comes great responsibility.
A Fountain of Inspiration: The public domain is like an all-you-can-eat buffet of creativity. It's an invitation to blend the classic with the contemporary, cooking up something uniquely delicious. Curious about what's up for grabs? Here’s a useful, albeit unofficial website for expired patents. You can also search USPTO for US patents, EPO for the ones filed in the EU, or Google Patents. When it comes to copyrighted stuff, any work published before 1928 should be in the public domain (at least in the US, other countries might have their own rules).
Cross-Departmental Harmony: Knowing your IP helps you jam better with the legal and R&D departments. When you understand the bounds of existing copyrights, it can shape the design of that next product line or service that'll have everyone talking.
Mickey Mouse 1.0's journey from private treasure to public delight is a reminder of creativity's evolving landscape and the fine line between guarding and feeding the public domain. As designers, it's on us to ensure our work honors the past's legacy and embraces the future's promise. It's about setting the idea traps, keeping the old fresh, and the new absolutely electrifying.
And let's be honest, that’s a pretty epic gig, right?