CIPIL Seminar: 'Myths, Legends and Imaginary Legal Subjects: Reconsidering the legal and business relations of Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse' - Kathy Bowrey

Dr Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales, will speak on the topic of "Myths, Legends and Imaginary Legal Subjects: Reconsidering the legal and business relations of Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse".

This presentation reflects upon myths that have emerged surrounding the history of character merchandising and the role played by intellectual property law. Dr Bowrey traces the commercial practices of Lewis Carroll and query the legendary status of Beatrix Potter as the founder of British character merchandising. The late Victorian and Edwardian business practices of these authors are differentiated from the more extensive Trans-Atlantic licensing of the syndicated newspaper and film cartoon character Felix the Cat and the world’s most famous rodent, Mickey Mouse. Carroll and Potter were mostly able to effectively assert legal rights in a way that maintained an intimate relationship between the author and the eventual products that wore their creations. However, in the 1920s and 1930s the craze for character merchandise unleashed by film led to far more undisciplined consumption. For the most part, copyright, design, passing off and trade mark law failed to protect the exclusive interests of the enterprise originators. It will be argued that it was the creation of an effective international commercial licensing infrastructure, which included exposure to preferred protocols of consumption, which created a profitable environment to exploit and grow the global trade in character merchandise. This leads to the question whether the modernization of intellectual property law came about more through shifting entrepreneurial practices and associated development of new forms of expertise than as consequence of legislative reform or judicial innovation. 

Kathy Bowrey is Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Her research explores laws and practices that inform the production, distribution and reception of culture and knowledge creation, with a particular interest in analysing the impact of the regulatory environment on creative practice, public institutions and understandings of community, identity and nationhood. Her primary expertise relates to intellectual property, media and information technology regulation, informed by legal history, feminist legal scholarship and a concern for Indigenous rights.