Research On Legal Protection Of The Television Program Mode

In recent years, there are a lot of television programs that imitate each other inChina. As long as there is a new program format which is popular, the major TVstations frequently emulate it and produce their own TV programs. The developmentof this trend has caused many of the original television programs which had greatvitality losing its vitality and no one shows any interest in the programs in a shortperiod.Although television programs has been becoming a global industries possessinggreat commercial value and been proving to be the television industry’s corecompetitiveness. The production of a mature and popular program format needs thecreative team to put into a large number of time, intelligence and funds. Therefore theformat of TV programs gain protection of the relevant law is reasonable. However, inthe current national legal framework, the formats of TV programs are difficult to beprotected by the relevant laws. The main reason is that the format of TV programs is anew concept which is different from the traditional programs. The connotation andextension of the format of TV programs in TV industry have not yet reached a unifiedopinion, so the legal property is also difficult to define.Now academia has some different opinions in the way of protecting the formatof television programs in law. There are three views: protection by copyright law, incorporating it into the protection of anti-unfair competition Law, or diversifyprotection by copyright law and anti-unfair competition Law. The author thinks thattelevision program format in our country is currently unable to obtain the protectionof copyright law considering our relevant laws and theories and combining withforeign judicial practice.“Only protecting the expression of ideas rather thanprotecting the idea itself”, this principle is adhered by our copyright law. The nature oftelevision program mode is an idea, so the television program mode is not listed in theobjects of protection in China’s copyright law, which I think it is the right choice.However, China’s anti-unfair competition law lack provisions about the protection ofthe television program format, and doesn’t list the behavior of imitating other’stelevision program format as an unfair competitive behavior in law. I do not agreewith the gaps in law, because with the TV program formats becoming more and moreprominent and the way of competition ever-changing, the formats of TV programshould be included to the scope of the unfair competition law adjusting. Before theformats of TV program obtain the protection of the copyright law, the anti-unfaircompetition law should actively play its role as the last bulwark for an intellectualproperty law and provide the adequate protection.The paper uses the method of comparative analysis and linking theory withpractice. Through the analysis and summary of the protection experience to the TVprogram models of the UK, USA, Germany, France and other Western developedcountries, we can draw some lessons from their practices. Then combined with thesituation that the phenomenon of imitation becomes universal in the televisionindustry, the paper proposes some legal advices about the protection to the mode ofChina’s TV programs. The innovation capability in China’s TV programs is expectedto achieve a breakthrough and gain a greater development under the effectiveprotection of the law.