The first of each year marks Public Domain Day, the day when a new batch of copyrighted creative works enter the public domain. The class of 2025 features literary classics such as William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, and Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own; musical compositions such as Singin’ in the Rain and Tiptoe through the Tulips; works of art including Salvador Dali’s Illumined Pleasures; and the first versions of familiar cartoon characters, including everyone’s favorite spinach-eating sailor.

Celebrate Public Domain Day by learning about the opportunities the public domain provides for the free sharing and adapting of treasured works, and for replicating and preserving lesser-known works, at the following resources:

Familiar Favorites Join the Club

Many works entering the public domain this year feature familiar characters at their early or first appearances, and these iterations are now free to share and adapt in new works. Mickey Mouse’s first talking appearance, and first appearance with his familiar white gloves, in The Karnival Kid enters the public domain with the class of 2025. The very first iterations of Mickey and Minnie Mouse are already in the public domain; they joined Winnie-the-Pooh and other familiar characters in the public domain in 2024.

On January 1, 2025, the first versions of comic strip characters Popeye and Tintin entered the public domain. These iterations of the characters are in the public domain and may be used in new works without permission or fee payment. However, these characters have since appeared in multiple, still-copyrighted works; these iterations are not in the public domain (yet) and may not be reproduced. Last year, an artist came under legal fire for his parody artwork featuring Tintin without seeking permission from the copyright holders; however, this year, the original iteration of the character is now in the public domain and free for creative use.

While the copyright protection of a creative work, including a character, may expire and the character then enters the public domain, trademarks do not expire. Copyright protections only apply to artistic uses and derivative works, while trademark applies to commercialized goods. There are several trademark registrations for Mickey Mouse by the Walt Disney Company in the U.S. Patent Office.

What’s in a Name (Brand)?

Many famous artists’ works entered the public domain in 2025. Frida Kahlo, the revolutionary Mexican painter who is world-known for her self-portraits, in which she explores identity, disability, culture, gender, and politics passed away in Mexico City in 1954. Many outlets are reporting the entry of Kahlo’s paintings into the public domain with the class of 2025.

Generally, copyright lasts for the artist’s lifetime, plus 70 years; however, there are many exceptions. In Mexico, copyright lasts for 100 years after the artist’s death for artists who died after 1956; artists who died before 1956 had only 20-25 years of copyright protection under Mexican law. Copyright protections include “economic rights” and “moral rights.” Additionally, under Mexican law, the right to publicity is retained for fifty years after one’s death. The right to publicity refers to one’s exclusive right to license and/or publish one’s name, likeness, and image for commercial purposes.

Legal battles concerning ownership over Kahlo’s works, name, and likeness followed the artist’s death, though not for many decades after. Kahlo died intestate (without a will) and without children in 1954. Her work was rediscovered during the feminist and Chicano movements of the 1970s; during her lifetime, Kahlo’s artwork was relatively unpopular. To protect Kahlo’s likeness and name, the Kahlo Family formed the Frida Kahlo Corporation (FKC) in Panama around 2004 – around the time the fifty-year right to publicity expired. Trademark registration of Kahlo’s name, likeness, signature, and slogans in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office began as early as 2002; most of these registrations are held by the FKC. However, the relationship between the FKC and the Kahlo Family began to disintegrate in the 2010s, when the FKC began to collaborate with brands such as Mattel, which members of the Kahlo family criticized, as well as launch litigious attacks on small creators who referenced Kahlo’s image or artworks.

The commercialization of Kahlo’s work in the Western art world has been a focus of continued critique since its boom in the 1980s until now. It is impossible to deny the artist’s impact on culture as her distinctive appearance and intriguing life story continue to influence catwalk fashion, Hollywood movies, and pop culture fads coined “Fridamania”. While commercialization of Kahlo’s image and works may raise concerns about dilution of the themes and messages of her artwork, it also raises legal issues around ownership when an artist’s works and their likeness are so closely conflated. Kahlo’s name, likeness, signatures, and slogans are protected by trademark law, but her artworks, which largely feature depictions of the artist’s uber-recognizable face which may or may not be protected by trademark, may no longer be protected by copyright law. Creators who wish to use or reference Kahlo’s works in new adaptations may need to prepare to navigate a legal minefield.

Ex Libris Juris - HCLL Blog

Familiar Favorites Join the Club

What’s in a Name (Brand)?

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