Trademark Backdoors to Public Domain

Rights‑holders are increasingly using trademark and ancillary claims to assert control over characters and cultural icons even after underlying copyrights lapse, sending license‑style threats to creators and platforms. This tactic exploits public confusion about chain‑of‑title and the separate but limited scope of trademark law to extract rents or deter reuse. — If trademark claims become a common method to keep works effectively exclusive after copyright expiration, the public domain and cultural reuse — including for AI training, fan works, and independent filmmaking — will be substantially narrowed.