> 1. Writing new Mickey stories - This is an odd legal/moral area for me. It's not unreasonable for Disney to want to protect Mickey
It's not "unreasonable" for the Sherlock Holmes estate to want to keep everything to do with that character too, but tough beans, they don't get to.
> and if you wrote a Mickey story, it's possible that people could feel that a 3rd party product is endorsed by Disney.
Disney is on the same footing as all other citizens in utilizing the public-___domain Mickey character. It's always possible when someone builds on a work that had entered the public ___domain for that new work to be attributed mistakenly to the original author. This isn't an excuse for the former copyright holder to have any additional rights over the work.
> 2. Mickey Mouse ears - Pretty clearly a trademark violation. Outside of the ___domain of copyright entirely.
Disagree, although this out of my area of expertise. The point of trademark is for brand/company recognition. Trademarks can't be made of "the idea of Mickey Mouse" once Micky has entered the public ___domain, so I don't see how Micky ears would violate it. I could trademark a particular 19th century drawing of Shakespere when used as a logo for my company, and it would be protected in that role on, e.g., packaging and advertisements. But that doesn't mean others can't sell reproductions of the painting or make t-shirts out of it.
It's not "unreasonable" for the Sherlock Holmes estate to want to keep everything to do with that character too, but tough beans, they don't get to.
> and if you wrote a Mickey story, it's possible that people could feel that a 3rd party product is endorsed by Disney.
Disney is on the same footing as all other citizens in utilizing the public-___domain Mickey character. It's always possible when someone builds on a work that had entered the public ___domain for that new work to be attributed mistakenly to the original author. This isn't an excuse for the former copyright holder to have any additional rights over the work.
> 2. Mickey Mouse ears - Pretty clearly a trademark violation. Outside of the ___domain of copyright entirely.
Disagree, although this out of my area of expertise. The point of trademark is for brand/company recognition. Trademarks can't be made of "the idea of Mickey Mouse" once Micky has entered the public ___domain, so I don't see how Micky ears would violate it. I could trademark a particular 19th century drawing of Shakespere when used as a logo for my company, and it would be protected in that role on, e.g., packaging and advertisements. But that doesn't mean others can't sell reproductions of the painting or make t-shirts out of it.