Gifts / Sports & Toys

As a global entertainment media giant, Disney owns many well-known IPs such as Pixar, Marvel, and Disney's headquarters, and the number of IP reserves ranks first in the world. But in the next few years, Disney may face a copyright "earthquake."

▌Multiple copyright roles of Marvel will expire?

According to a foreign media report on September 25, Disney's Marvel is suing some famous comic creators and related heirs, with the purpose of protecting the copyright of its superhero characters from the heirs of the late famous cartoonists.

As early as August of this year, one of Spider-Man’s creators, Steve Ditko’s legacy committee, issued a reminder that Spider-Man’s copyright expired, notifying Marvel that it would lose the copyright to the character in June 2023.

What annoys Disney even more is that this lawsuit is far more than just the copyright of Spider-Man. The superhero characters involved include but are not limited to: Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon , Thor, etc. Mainly aimed at the heirs of many late well-known cartoonists, including Stan Lee, Steve Ditko (the creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange), and Gene Colan (the screenwriter of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Gene Colan) Heir of others.

According to the US copyright law, the author or the author’s legal heir can take back the role copyright previously granted to the publisher after the statutory waiting time expires.

This will also mean that if Marvel loses, after the copyright of these characters expires, the descendants of the creator may get back the copyright belonging to the creator-and Marvel will also share in the copyright profits worth billions of dollars.

A few years ago, the American comic book giant, DC Comics, had encountered similar incidents. Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster filed a lawsuit against DC Comics in hopes of regaining the copyright, but they lost the lawsuit.

It just so happens that Marc Toberoff, the attorney representing one of Marvel's litigants, Steve Ditko (the creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange), is the attorney representing the creator of Superman. I wonder if Marc Toberoff can break the previous defeat this time?

As a world-class media company, Marvel certainly cannot give up these roles easily. From the outside world, with the support of Disney's strong capital, Marvel has no pressure to deal with relatively "weak and weak" copyright owners. Looking at the other side: Although the winning rate is not high, this lawsuit gives hope to the heirs of the late cartoonists to get back the copyright from Disney, which is still very significant.

▌Mickey's copyright will face the third copyright crisis

It is also worth mentioning that the copyright of Mickey, as a classic Disney image, will also expire in 2023, and its right to use the image may be released, and Disney may lose this "money tree."

Tokyo Disney (Thousand Pictures)

It is reported that classic character products such as Mickey, Minnie and Goofy are Disney’s most profitable products, bringing in at least US$3.2 billion in revenue each year. Together with the revenue from Disney’s merchandise or theme parks, it is conservatively estimated that Disney can earn 25 billion a year.

In 2023, Disney faced Mickey's copyright crisis for the third time: in the previous two times, Disney had adopted powerful lobbying activities to "turn the tide": by funding the campaigns of important members of Congress, Disney made a total of donations during the 1997-98 political campaign. The US$800,000 was paid, prompting the U.S. Congress to pass an extension of the copyright period, changing it to the life of the creator plus 50 years after death, and the company’s copyright was 75 years after the work was published, which brought about changes in the United States’ copyright laws.

Disney's classic character Mickey's changing trajectory

According to the latest copyright law passed by the United States in 1998, the current copyright period for works created before 1923 has expired; and for works created after 1923, the copyright period is the life of the creator plus 70 years after his death. The copyright term of the company is 95 years from the publication of the work. Once the deadline has passed, these works will fall into the "public domain" and are not protected by copyright law.

In other words, after 2023, anyone may have the right to use Mickey's image to produce goods or create creations, without the need to pay copyright fees to Disney. This undoubtedly faces huge losses for Disney.

Faced with a series of copyright issues, can Disney once again use its unexpected "killer" to properly solve it and continue to maintain its status as the kingdom of IP copyright? We can only wait and see.