# M-I-See you in court: Man sues Disney for Mickey Mouse rights

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-i-see-you-in-court-man-sues-disney-for-mickey-mouse-rights/391968>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 13, 2007, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-i-see-you-in-court-man-sues-disney-for-mickey-mouse-rights/391968 "2007-02-13T03:15:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-i-see-you-in-court-man-sues-disney-for-mickey-mouse-rights/391968/21 "2007-02-13T20:04:15Z")

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Disney rule # 1. “Don’t Fuck With the Mouse!” They’re very protective about their little rodent.

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**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-i-see-you-in-court-man-sues-disney-for-mickey-mouse-rights/391968/22 "2007-02-14T00:22:06Z")

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> [@The St. Petersburg Times Article](#):
>
> Critics have wondered whether phones with cradle receivers even existed in the 1920s. They did, but the coiled phone cord had not been invented yet.
> 
> Stein’s response: “They didn’t have a talking mouse then, either, and Disney invented that. If he embellished his drawing with a curly phone cord, we can surely give him that poetic license.”

:rolleyes: Nice try.

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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-i-see-you-in-court-man-sues-disney-for-mickey-mouse-rights/391968/23 "2007-02-14T00:41:42Z")

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[QUOTE=garygnu]  
I highly doubt it’s original anyway. The drawing shown in the OP link looks nothing like the early versions of Mickey. [_Plane Crazy_](http://corinne.free.fr/plane.htm) and [_The Gallopin’ Goucho_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gallopin-gaucho.jpg) were both made before _Steamboat Willie_. Note the eyes especially.  
[/QUOTE]  
Yep. No way this is authentic. It looks NOTHING like the original character design. And who would do an exploratory concept sketch that’s 2’ tall? And that’s not a full figure or an isolated head?

My wife has a picture of Alvin and the chipmunks that her dad drew for her when she was a little girl. She wanted a picture of her favorite cartoon characters for her room and it was much harder to find licensed pictures back in the day. That’s what this looks like to me. Someone drew a picture of Mickey for their kid’s room. Or for the wall in a preschool.

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