Disney Hit With Bombshell Lawsuit Over Mickey Mouse Rights

If you thought Mickey Mouse finally hitting the public domain meant open season, Disney would like to have a word. And now so does Morgan & Morgan. Yes, the personal injury law firm. They just hauled Disney into court over whether their new ad can use the OG 1928 version of Mickey and Minnie without mouse-shaped trouble.

What kicked this off

Morgan & Morgan filed a lawsuit in Florida federal court last week asking a judge to bless a 37-second commercial that riffs on the 1928 short 'Steamboat Willie' — the version of Mickey that entered the public domain in 2024. The firm says Disney’s lawyers pushed back on a planned nationwide rollout featuring Mickey and Minnie in those original designs, and Disney wouldn’t promise not to come after them. So the firm is asking the court for a declaratory judgment: basically, tell us we’re allowed to run this.

The ad at the center of it

• It uses the 1928 designs for Mickey and Minnie.
• Mickey is steering a boat that crashes into Minnie’s car; she calls the law firm after. Yes, the accident is between cartoons.
• The ad opens and closes with a disclaimer saying Disney did not approve it.
• The complaint calls out Disney’s history of aggressive IP enforcement and its refusal to disclaim any intent to enforce here.

Copyright vs. trademark, the short version

This is the part that gets a little inside baseball. The 1928 'Steamboat Willie' short is public domain as of 2024, which means anyone can use that specific depiction of Mickey. But Disney still holds copyright on later iterations of the character, and it has active trademarks tied to Mickey that can limit how competitors use his image in ways that imply sponsorship or confuse consumers. That overlap — public domain vs. trademark — is exactly where this fight lives.

Disney’s recent moves to draw the line

In July, Disney sued a jewelry company called Satéur for putting the 'Steamboat Willie' design on products. Disney said customer complaints about quality risk hurting the brand, and spelled out its stance in a filing:

"As Disney has stated publicly, while copyright expired in the Steamboat Willie motion picture, Mickey Mouse will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for Disney."

Translation: the earliest Mickey might be public domain, but Disney still treats the character as core to the company’s identity and will lean on trademark and later copyrights to protect that.

Disney’s long game (and why this is happening now)

For decades, Disney fought to keep 'Steamboat Willie' out of the public domain, lobbying for copyright extensions in 1976 and 1998. That delayed the handoff until 2024. More recently, the company built 'Steamboat Willie' imagery into its modern logo — a handy way to bolster trademark arguments about consumers associating that specific boat-whistling mouse with Disney today.

Meanwhile, other people are already using him

HBO’s 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' rolled out a mascot version playing off the public-domain Mickey. There’s also a 2025 horror movie called 'Screamboat' on the way. So the floodgates are cracked, and this lawsuit could set a tone for how far creators and marketers can go before they run into Disney’s trademark wall.

Bottom line: Morgan & Morgan wants a judge to say their ad is fair game. Disney wants to make sure the world knows that vintage Mickey might be up for grabs, but the character’s brand power is not. However this shakes out, expect the decision to become a reference point for anyone planning to get cute with public-domain icons.