A Hong Kong jeweler is the latest to face legal heat from The Walt Disney Company — not over Steamboat Willie, but over what the company says is something far more current.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this week, Disney accused the Red Earth Group — an online jewelry seller operating under the brand Satéur — of trademark infringement. The studio claims the company has been selling unlicensed products featuring Mickey Mouse’s image across Hong Kong and mainland China, allegedly targeting “Disney enthusiasts” with language and branding that suggest an official collaboration.
Disney’s filing claims Satéur “intends to present Mickey Mouse as its own brand identifier for its jewelry merchandise” and that it “seeks to trade on the recognizability of the Mickey Mouse trademarks and consumers’ affinity for Disney and its iconic ambassador Mickey Mouse.”
The merchandise, according to the suit, falsely implies a partnership with Disney — a move the company says is designed to “confuse consumers.”
After Steamboat Willie, Disney Enters a New Legal Phase
The lawsuit comes at a complicated moment for Disney’s relationship with its most iconic character.
In January 2024, the copyright for Steamboat Willie — the black-and-white short that introduced Mickey Mouse in 1928 — officially expired, pushing the earliest version of the character into the public domain. In theory, that opened the door for creators, businesses, and artists to rework, reproduce, or parody Mickey’s original form without fear of litigation.
And many did. The months that followed saw a wave of indie horror projects turning the cheerful mouse into something far darker. Films like Mickey’s Mouse Trap and The Return of Steamboat Willie were quickly announced, styling the early Mickey as a slasher villain and aiming for viral attention rather than box office success.
What these projects share — and what keeps them legally protected — is a reliance on that original design: no red shorts, no gloves, no modern Mickey trademarks. Just the whistling steamboat pilot from 1928.
That’s where the boundary lies, and Disney is watching it carefully.
A Character Worth Litigating For
Despite the copyright lapse, Mickey Mouse remains heavily protected by trademark law. And trademark infringement — which governs logos, brands, and consumer confusion — doesn’t expire when a character’s original design enters the public domain.
The Red Earth Group case underscores how Disney plans to operate in this new legal landscape: tolerating Steamboat Willie-based tributes within limits, while aggressively policing the modern image of the mouse. The company is no stranger to courtroom enforcement.
Earlier this year, it partnered with Universal in a joint lawsuit against Midjourney, the AI image generation company. The complaint accused Midjourney of enabling users to create unauthorized images of characters like Elsa, Darth Vader, and Buzz Lightyear — calling the platform a “piracy machine.”
Disney has also taken aim at traditional studios and distributors. In 2013, it forced Canadian company Phase 4 Films to rebrand its animated film Frozen Land, alleging the title was designed to confuse consumers in the wake of Frozen’s release.
Even in the 1970s, long before memes or AI, Disney pursued underground comic artists from the Air Pirates collective, who had published explicit Mickey Mouse parodies. The case went on for years but demonstrated Disney’s long-held philosophy: Mickey Mouse may change over time, but he will never be free for public use — not in any form the company still controls.
As for the latest case, Disney’s message is no less pointed. A black-and-white mouse may be in the public domain, but everything that followed — the brand, the style, the global symbol — remains firmly under lock and key.
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