Research On The Legal Protection Of Merchandising Right In Fictional Characters

Virtual role of the commercialization of sport in modern economic life toflourish, more and more virtual characters to be utilized in commercial activities, suchas used in product packaging, made toys shape and so on. there are so many cases canbe seen everywhere in daily life such us Doraemon, Crayon,Pleasant cartoon image ofthe gray wolf. This commercial activity is generally referred to as virtual characters inthe derivatives industry, it can bring in huge profits for the right holders.Owned bythe Walt Disney Co. Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and other company has a cartoonimage of Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Altman, Winnie the Pooh, a year for the rightholders to billions of dollars in revenue. Such huge profits has long attracted theattention of scholars, experts and officials. Therefore, many countries have alreadybegun on the right to the commercialization of virtual characters theoretical research,and incorporated under the protection of existing laws. China’s late start in this regard.Only the first batch of papers published in the eighties and nineties judgment also cannot find a legal basis, up to now a relatively mature research results.This article is inorder to promote the legal protection of the right to the commercialization of virtualcharacters, and try to solve some of the problems of the theory which is stillcontroversial to study.The first part of this virtual character merchandising rights overview, a briefdescription of the origin of the commodification and commercialization rights,concepts and classification of the virtual character merchandising rights, so we have ageneral understanding of the virtual character merchandising rights. The second partfocuses on the nature of the virtual character merchandising rights and legalrelationships that defined the nature of the virtual role of the intellectual property ofthe merchandising right, the new intellectual property is different from the traditionalintellectual property rights. The third part of the composition of the virtual character merchandising rights legal relationship. A mature right, there must be of basic legalrelationship, such as subject, object and content. The right to the commercializationof virtual characters is no exception, also has its own unique subject, object andcontent. The article distinguishes between the carrier and the object of the virtualcharacter merchandising rights, vector refers to the virtual characters, names, images,virtual commitment to the role, the object is a virtual role has the reputation of itsattractiveness to customers, but also the virtual characters commodities of the right toproduce under. The rights include the positive power and negative power, and jointlysafeguard the legitimate rights and interests of right holders. The fourth part of thecommercialization of the right to legal protection of the status quo at this stage virtualcharacters and the limitations are discussed. The article aims to analyze theconservation status of the virtual characters commercialization rights and thelimitations, which asked the next stage of the targeted protection recommendations.Virtual characters commercialization rights may be subject to copyright law,trademark law, patent law, rights law and the protection of the Anti-UnfairCompetition Law, but these laws there are problems in the protection process, and areunable to provide adequate and effective protection. Therefore, the fifth part of thearticle proposed targeted improvement recommendations, including the amendmentof those laws, part of the system to strengthen cross-protection of the right to thecommercialization of virtual characters, and special legislation when the conditionsare right.The main focus of this paper includes two aspects: first defined the nature of thelegal right to the commercialization of virtual characters, clear a traditionalintellectual property rights are not the same as a new type of intellectual propertyrights, and studied theoretically on this basis, the virtual characters the legalrelationship of the commercialization of the right components: subject, object andcontent, trying to establish a relatively scientific knowledge systems; The secondfocuses on the limitations of the existing law on the conservation status of the virtualcharacters commercialization rights and protection, and proposed improve the ways:First, the special legislation to protect the legal protection of the right to thecommercialization of virtual characters, is to strengthen cross-protection. The article does not depend on the point of view of most scholars, inventive, build a virtualcharacter merchandising rights to the Trademark Law of the basic system-basedsystem of legal protection, gradually emerging from the impact of copyright law onthem, and recommended to consider and learn from the integrated circuit layout Thedesign of the protected mode in this stage authorize the State Council to developregulations to protect until the time is ripe, and then special legislation by theNational People’s Congress and its Standing Committee. Protection means not onlyimprove the focus of this article, or the lies of the purpose of this paper can providecan be as a reference for the country on the legal protection of the right to thecommercialization of virtual characters.