Study On The Intellectual Property Protection Of Television Program Formats

With the development of television industry,all kinds of programs especially entertainment programs have emerged in endlessly,which have created a large number of high quality television program formats at home and abroad.A television program format is a television framework that is composed of a series of elements and mainly be used as a model to produce a television program.Television program formats are intellectual achievements,and entitled to fall into the scope of intellectual property protection.Nowadays,researching and developing new television program format so as to improve the TV rating has turned into a primary competition means in the TV industries.For example,the TV industries in Britain have mental discernments and particularly pay attention to develop new television program formats,so they can obtain huge profits in the television program formats trading.It can be said that,the competition of the TV programs is the competition of the television program formats.With the development view,the transaction of the television program formats has proved to be a global industry with most commercial value.In order to reinforce the legal protection of the television program formats,the western countries where television industry is highly advanced,has gradually formed a legal protection which give priority to copyright laws, laws against unfair competition as a auxiliary and plus trade mark law,contract law etc.Besides the judicial protection,there are many civil organizations to center on self-disciplining,so it can restrict the subjects’behaviour, and help protect television program formats.In western countries,there are various means of protection exist and practical experience in jurisdiction abound in order to protect television program formats.By contrast,because of the hysteretic quality of the existing related law in China,there is a total blank of legal protection to intellectual property of television program format,and there is no clear legal norms to protect the television program format in the domestic.Many challenges must be confronted with legal protection of the television program format especially in the intellectual property field.Therefore,there are huge opportunities in theory and practical implementation in this realm.By elaborating the basic theory of television program format and analyzing the intellectual property protection of television program format in two big legal systems,it is summarizing and combing revelations in the aspect of our legislation and then dissecting the theory basis for the intellectual property protection of television program format.At last,in accordance with the current situation of television program format protection in China,comparing the success of the practical experience in foreign countries,and using for refence,this paper attempts to put forward some legal proposals and concrete measures for the protection of television program formats in China.