Two New (Old) IPs Enter The Public Domain
Image Source: Tintin.com
As the years roll on, more and more old media, characters, and creations enter the public domain in the United States. In 2025, alongside several significant books, films, and pieces of music, two notable characters enter the public domain: Popeye and Tintin.
Popeye is well known in the modern day, even if many have likely not watched a classic Popeye cartoon or read one of his comics in years. This spinach-gulping, damsel-saving sailor isn’t entering the public domain as he is now, though. Instead, only the earliest version of the character will be available. This could pose issues, as his spinach-gulping wasn’t a feature until sometime later, while the mumbling voice so well known from his starring animations didn’t appear until 1933 and is thus still protected.
Despite these hurdles for anyone looking to make use of Popeye’s earliest iteration, there is already a slew of horror films in the works that will make use of this character, similar to what happened to Steamboat Mickey starting in the year 2024.
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As for Tintin, however, much like Popeye, the most familiar version of the character, as seen in things like the film Adventures of Tintin from 2011, will not be made available to the public. Instead, the simple black and white drawing of a teenage reporter with dots for eyes and a swoop of hair will be, as color wasn’t introduced to Tintin’s world until much later. This could mean anyone looking to make a red-haired Tintin could be on the hook for legal trouble.
This all also only applies to the USA, as with Tintin, for instance, many countries will keep the character protected for a few more decades to come, enforcing their rules from the year his creator died, 1983, instead of the date of the character’s creation. Hopefully, though, some creative uses for these characters will come to be as the American public gets access to them.
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Source(s): NBC4i
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