https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghxzLw2wRis

this is nice and all but uh do not give steamboat willie mickey mouse gloves, disney still has a chokehold over gloved mickey. take em off

hypabeast_ad said:
this is nice and all but uh do not give steamboat willie mickey mouse gloves, disney still has a chokehold over gloved mickey. take em off

1. I don't think you can copyright a piece of clothing or color. (Although you can probably put trademarks on one, which is a different thing for stuff like more specific merchandising)

2. He is wearing gloves on the title card.

3. Even if all of that somehow doesn't work, we'd still be able to use them next year since he fully wears them by 1929. I think it's also the same year we can safely use his colors too since the first illustrated advertisement has him in red shorts, assuming it's not from 1928 or 1930.

markwayne97 said:
1. I don't think you can copyright a piece of clothing or color. (Although you can probably put trademarks on one, which is a different thing for stuff like more specific merchandising)

2. He is wearing gloves on the title card.

3. Even if all of that somehow doesn't work, we'd still be able to use them next year since he fully wears them by 1929. I think it's also the same year we can safely use his colors too since the first illustrated advertisement illustrated advertisement has him in red shorts, assuming it's not from 1928 or 1930.

Clothing can be considered a part of the character design, making it copyrightable, to an extent. For example, the clothing item itself can’t be copyrighted, but when it’s a consistent part of the character design (like the pants Mickey wears), then that goes along with the character, but only when paired with that character. It’s a weird wrinkle that crosses Trademark law with copyright law.

That being said however, as is noted, this character was wearing gloves in initial concept art so it’s now public domain as well.