To any Kingdom Hearts fans who may not be familiar with copyright law in the entertainment industry:
Disney does not own Kingdom Hearts, Square-Enix does. What that means is that all original content generated within the series is the intellectual property of Square (including characters, worlds, monsters, concepts, etc), and if Disney wants to use them in something non-KH related, they need to get permission from Square. (Ie use Sora’s image on something, etc.) The companies have a great relationship, so Square would prob be happy to let them use KH intellectual property, but it’d take a bunch of legal paperwork and crap, and that costs money, which is prob why Disney hasn’t done any cute KH cameos in stuff. Yes, it sucks, but that’s just how it works.
The same rules would apply for shared intellectual property- both owners would need to have legal consent for their property to be used. Also, Disney and Square may also have a legal agreement stating that neither company will use KH intellectual property outside of official KH material just as a way of being respectful to each other’s companies. That’s probably why we don’t see any KH cameos in either Square or Disney media that isn’t related to KH.
Square came up with the concept and everything for KH, and then pitched it to Disney, who liked the idea, and then gave them license to use their intellectual property only within the KH universe. The first KH game was solely developed by (then) Squaresoft, and only in later games did Disney start up their own game development team to work on their own ventures as well as help with KH. Disney is merely the equivalent of an investment partner in the KH franchise- they let Square use their intellectual property if they get an equal share in the profits. If Disney owned full copyright privileges of KH then Disney’s official stores would sell KH merchandise- but Square owns all the rights to the merch, which is why we see all the KH merch on sale in Japan and on Square’s online stores. It’s a bit complicated (as legal stuff always is…), but those who believe that Disney owns exclusive rights to KH are mistaken.
The only KH thing you’ll see by Disney themselves are those pins they sell at the parks and if I remember correctly, were only available for a certain time due to limited quantities.
To any Kingdom Hearts fans who may not be familiar with copyright law in the entertainment industry:
Disney does not own Kingdom Hearts, Square-Enix does. What that means is that all original content generated within the series is the intellectual property of Square (including characters, worlds, monsters, concepts, etc), and if Disney wants to use them in something non-KH related, they need to get permission from Square. (Ie use Sora’s image on something, etc.) The companies have a great relationship, so Square would prob be happy to let them use KH intellectual property, but it’d take a bunch of legal paperwork and crap, and that costs money, which is prob why Disney hasn’t done any cute KH cameos in stuff. Yes, it sucks, but that’s just how it works.
The same rules would apply for shared intellectual property- both owners would need to have legal consent for their property to be used. Also, Disney and Square may also have a legal agreement stating that neither company will use KH intellectual property outside of official KH material just as a way of being respectful to each other’s companies. That’s probably why we don’t see any KH cameos in either Square or Disney media that isn’t related to KH.
Square came up with the concept and everything for KH, and then pitched it to Disney, who liked the idea, and then gave them license to use their intellectual property only within the KH universe. The first KH game was solely developed by (then) Squaresoft, and only in later games did Disney start up their own game development team to work on their own ventures as well as help with KH. Disney is merely the equivalent of an investment partner in the KH franchise- they let Square use their intellectual property if they get an equal share in the profits. If Disney owned full copyright privileges of KH then Disney’s official stores would sell KH merchandise- but Square owns all the rights to the merch, which is why we see all the KH merch on sale in Japan and on Square’s online stores. It’s a bit complicated (as legal stuff always is…), but those who believe that Disney owns exclusive rights to KH are mistaken.
The only KH thing you’ll see by Disney themselves are those pins they sell at the parks and if I remember correctly, were only available for a certain time due to limited quantities.