Disney is about to lose its decades-long battle to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain.

With the advent of the New Year, thousands of Copyrighted content will pass into being available for the public domain - current U.S. laws regarding Copyright declare that it must "expire" after 95 years from declaration.

The Mickey Mouse in "Steamboat Willie" was supposed to lose Copyright protection in 1984, Disney, however, was not particularly enthusiastic about this eventuality and lobbied for an extension of the term by another 20 years, resulting in a new copyright law: the Copyright Act of 1976. Nevertheless, this extension was not enough - twenty years later, the company still did not consider itself ready for the loss of protection of the much-loved character, resulting in the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.

In any case, the company need not worry about this inevitable development. Each version of Mickey Mouse is protected by a Copyright registration that occurred in different years - meaning that the only Mickey Mouse in the public domain will be precisely the one depicted in Steamboat Willie.