system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Mickey Mouse public domain

ELI5: What’s going to happen with Mickey Mouse and Disney’s ownership in 2024 when he become a public domain?
gpt
This is going to be a lot more complex than “just” copyright law, because Mickey is heavily trademarked and is about as tied up in Disney’s brand as is possible. Trademarks don’t expire as long as they are in use, and Disney has been using its Mickey trademarking to the max.

So although Steamboat Willy and “Mickey Mouse” fall into the pubic domain soon the trademark on Mickey doesn’t. You *could* make new content featuring “mickey” but will have an extremely narrow path to navigate between “using material in the public domain” and “trademark infringement”, with a large team of very litigious and well funded IP lawyers reviewing every aspect of what you’re doing with the character for even the slightest potential Trademark infringement.