There is not much time left for Walt Disney Company to renew his ace IP.

According to the Guardian on July 3, Mickey Mouse's 95-year copyright protection period has entered a countdown. Starting from January 1, 2024, the copyright of this ace IP will no longer be exclusive to Walt Disney Company, which will undoubtedly make Walt Disney Company suffer a certain loss of copyright revenue.

Interestingly, these earnings should have said goodbye to Walt Disney Company 39 years ago. According to US law at that time, Mickey was supposed to be everyone's public property in 1984 after 56 years of copyright protection, but Walt Disney Company lobbied the US government hard to charge the copyright with a life span of 19 years. In 1998, Walt Disney Company, who was on the verge of death, showed off his skills again and successfully renewed his life for another 20 years.

In order to save Mickey, Walt Disney Company gave 800000 dollars to a political movement. You know, Walt Disney Company has never taken sides between parties. Joe Shapiro, head of Walt Disney Company's Washington lobbying office, once said: "if you take a tough stance, either way, you will offend about half of the people." "

There is no other reason why Disney Fay is so hard. Mickey makes too much money. Time magazine reported in 2008 that 40% of Walt Disney Company's annual licensing income came from Mickey. Apart from theme parks, the Mickey series earns Walt Disney Company at least $3.2 billion a year, Chinanews.com reported in 2018.

Walt Disney Company relies on the lying-in-earning mode of copyright, which may fail on Mickey this time.. "there is no evidence that a longer period of time produces more art and literature," said Chris Sprigman, a legal scholar at New York University. Daniel Meida (Daniel Mayeda), deputy director of the documentary Law Clinic at UCLA Law School, said: "Walt Disney Company has been very active in trying to extend the copyright terms, but I don't think they can succeed again this time. "

The media "Ars Technica" believes that in the past 20 years,The political climate of copyright legislation has changed fundamentally. The rise of the Internet means that many people, and even organizations such as Alphabet Inc-CL C and Wikipedia, can benefit from the growing public domain. Walt Disney Company's possibility of repeating the same tricks has plummeted.。

In fact, since this year, another well-known IP of Walt Disney Company, Pupu Bear, has entered the public domain. This is just the beginning. If Walt Disney Company cannot renew IP's life as before, other well-known IP copyrights, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, and Puppet Adventures, will bid farewell to it in the near future.

Walt Disney Company founder Walter Walt Disney Company (Walt Disney) grew up on a family farm in Missouri, where he targeted animals near the farm. Years later, on a train back to California, he tried to doodle a mouse he had adopted, and Mickey's image was born.

However, Mickey's road to fame was bumpy, and Walter's animated short "Crazy plane" and "the Gao Qiao Man" released in May 1928 did not splash until "Steamboat Willie" found a distributor for release in November. Walter said proudly, "the whole mission of Mickey is to make people laugh and make them laugh." "

In October of that year, with the arrival of the Great Depression in the United States, the fear of unemployment and bankruptcy hung over many Americans, who chose to escape from reality briefly in the world created by Mickey. Us President George W. Bush once comforted lost Americans by saying, "go to Walt Disney Company."

While becoming a national idol of Americans, Mickey also showed a strong ability to cash in.. A businessman came to Walter for $300 just to print Mickey's image on a children's pencil-box. At that time, Walter had just started his business and could not make much money from the issue. Roy (his brother) and I need money. "there is no doubt that this has solved his urgent needs.

Three years later, Walter, who had tasted the benefits, began to find more people to work with, and brought Ingersoll-Waterbury, a watchmaker on the brink of bankruptcy, back from the dead, expanding its staff from 300 to 3000. In the years that followed, Mickey was busier than the stars, starring in more than 130 cartoons one after another. Alan Alan Bryma, a professor at the University of Leicester, estimates that Walt Disney Company's licensing fees alone reached $100m by 1948.

After becoming popular, Walt Disney Company began to work on something new-- to file a lawsuit. In 1987, in order to celebrate graduation, more than a hundred primary school students in Japan drew a Mickey Mouse at the bottom of the drained pool and happily took a picture with it. Who knew it was reported at length by the local media and discovered by Walt Disney Company.

Soon, Walt Disney Company sent a letter from a lawyer to the headmaster warning that under pressure, the photo albums of the pupils were deleted and the Mickey Mouse at the bottom of the pool was erased. Since then, the Japanese who have been hammered by Walt Disney Company's iron fist have left a psychological shadow, and Walt Disney Company should be careful when it comes to it. There is a joke circulating in the market, "if one day you unfortunately live on an uninhabited island, as long as you draw a Mickey Mouse profile portrait on the beach, Walt Disney Company's legal department will parachute to you despite all difficulties." this is thanks to Walt Disney Company's legal Department, the general counsel who is known as the "strongest legal department in the western hemisphere" received a salary of US $11.47 million in 2016, the highest in the world.

After several twists and turns, IP copyright has become the wealth password of Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney Company has gradually grown into a giant covering movies, parks and derivatives.

No matter how strong the IP is, it will expire. In the original copyright system of the United States, its IP copyright can only last for 56 years, and Mitch's copyright should have expired in 1984. however, before it was about to expire, Walt Disney Company lobbied Congress to pass the 1976 royalty legislation, extending the maximum term of copyright of published works from 56 years to 75 years. Now, Mickey won't expire until 2003.

How exactly is lobbied, public information is rarely mentioned. "We believe that lobbying is our exclusive right. We don't want to talk about it. "said Thomas J. Deegan, a former spokesman for Walt Disney Company. Shapiro also said that silence is for the corporate image. "the company is considered to be a group of powerful lobbyists, so how does it improve Walt Disney Company's value to shareholders?" "

In 1998, five years before Mickey's copyright entered the public domain, and other characters such as Donald Duck and Goofy were only more than a decade away from entering the public domain, the anxious Walt Disney Company showed off his coquettish operation again, opening an office in Washington, donating money, hiring lobbyists, and donating 800000 dollars in the then glued political campaign. At that time, Walt Disney Company theme park had injected billions of dollars into Florida and California.

In an article published in October 1998 by Alan K. Otta, author of CQ magazine, some of the behind-the-scenes details were revealed.

One afternoon in June, Michael D. Eisner, then chairman of Walt Disney Company Company. Eisner) walked into the noisy Senate hall and had a secret conversation with the House majority leader, who mentioned a bill to extend the expiring Mickey Mouse copyright. He was assured before he left the Capitol office that it was done.

In fact, on March 25, 1998, the House of Representatives passed the copyright extension Bill by oral vote. The supporters' reasons are that "copyright revenue is very important to the United States", "copyright extension will encourage artists to create new works," and even cited Europe as an example.

In 1993, the European Union extended the limitation of copyright for 20 years, and copyright was protected 70 years after the author's death. "compared with their European counterparts, American creators seem to have no reason to be at a disadvantage," said Preston Padden, who spoke on behalf of Walt Disney Company. Major professional sports leagues, including time Warner, Viacom, NFL and NBA, are supporters.

However, a very small number of opponents, such as those working in restaurants and bars, have come forward one after another, angrily criticizing Walt Disney Company for making a lot of money and looking too ugly. Dennis S. Karjala, a law professor, even criticized: "The extension of copyright protection will bring huge costs to the American public without bringing any benefits to the public.」

Later, when the House of Representatives proposed to waive the music copyright fees paid by most restaurants and bars, the opposition was calmed down. Walt Disney Company began lobbying in 1995, but it was not until 1998 that he successfully lobbied because of the opposition of these people.

On October 27, US President William Jefferson Clinton signed the Sonny Bono copyright extension Act, extending the copyright term by 20 years to 1995. As a result, Mickey renewed his life until 2023, which is jokingly known as the "Mickey Mouse clause."

Walt Disney Company's efforts to extend the royalty protection period have not been in vain. Pupu Bear and his buddies topped the Forbes list of the most valuable virtual characters published in 2003, generating $5.9 billion a year, followed by Mickey Mouse and his buddies. By 2019, according to Brand Finance, a British brand evaluation agency, Walt Disney Company's brand was worth $45.8 billion, with four of the top 15 Disney camp brands.

What does losing Mickey mean to Walt Disney Company?

It is worth noting that what Walt Disney Company is about to lose in 2024 is only the 1928 version of "Willie Steamship" Mickey. Several versions of Mickey created and processed by Walt Disney Company are unaffected and still enjoy a copyright protection period of 1995. For example, we are most familiar with Mickey in white gloves, red clothes, or Mickey in straw hat.

Lawyer Daniel Mayda (Daniel Mayeda) analysis: you can use the original version of Mickey Mouse anywhere, but if the image you use is too similar to Walt Disney Company's Mickey Mouse version, Walt Disney Company may also be held responsible. Artists like Waterfield don't cross the line when creating new works based on old characters. If the public mistakenly thinks that a work is related to Walt Disney Company, it may have significant legal consequences. "

The trademark is different from copyright, the trademark is not subject to time limit, Walt Disney Company registered a lot of trademarks. Heavenly eye inspection shows that Walt Disney Company has applied for as many as hundreds of trademarks related to Mickey and Mickey Mouse, which can only be used after authorization.

"We tried to be very careful, we knew there was a line, we knew what their copyright was, so we did everything we could to make sure [our film] was based on the 1926 version," Waterfield told Variety. No one will mistake this for Walt Disney Company. "

Walt Disney Company's IP, Goofy will expire in 2027, Donald Duck in 2029, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 2032 and Puppet Adventures in 2035, which should keep Walt Disney Company's legal department busy, according to foreign media.

Losing Mickey, the most direct impact on Walt Disney Company is that he will lose part of the royalty authorization income.. In 2021, IP Mickey Mouse and his friends ranked fourth among the 50 most profitable IP in the world, with a total income of $80.3 billion, according to Wiki&Mili. The specific impact on Walt Disney Company is still difficult to quantify, but it may be possible to get a glimpse of the copyright of Pupu Bear IP that Walt Disney Company just lost in January this year.

According to Walt Disney Company's financial report for the first quarter of 2022, Walt Disney Company's total revenue was $19.249 billion, up 23% from the same period last year, of which revenue from content sales and licensing was $1.866 billion, down 3% from the same period last year ($2.433 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021).

Walt Disney Company is also in action on the development of the new IP. In the past, the average production cycle of IP was 12-18 months, which was usually driven by movies and revenue from licensing, theme parks and so on, such as Mickey and Donald Duck. But in recent years, with the rise of the Internet, IP can quickly create human settings without the help of film and television works.

Walt Disney Company launched Lingna Bell in 2021. "Lina Belle is a curious fox and very smart, she can find happiness in solving problems and solving mysteries," according to her website. With the help of social media, the distinctive character Lina Belle quickly broke the circle and won online fame in only two months, while Xingdelu, who was born three years ago, took two years to reach such popularity.

However, without rich film and television content, whether Lingna Bell, like Mickey, can grow up for nearly a hundred years, not only keeps the outside world watching, but also a new challenge for Walt Disney Company.