Research On Copyright Protection Of Cartoon Character

Cartoon character is fashioned its image by artistic style, reflects the intellectual labor of the author, is accepted by the society and becomes important carrier to inherit and develop culture. However, cartoon character is often attached to other works, and traditional copyright law does not provide the copyright protection. For the need of culture development and legal rights protection, USA and the Japan developed the copyright protection of the cartoon character in their cases. During the current time to develop culture, cartoon character is often infringed and can not accept enough relief for our copyright law in not imperfect and the infringer is stimulated by the commercial value of cartoon character. Therefore, perfecting our copyright protection to cartoon character may be very important for its theoretic value and reality meaning to encourage more excellent cartoon characters and inherit excellent cultureCartoon character is created by the author. For its originality and expression, cartoon character should be accepted as works and be protected by the copyright law. Meanwhile, the copyright protection of cartoon character can remedy the gaps of trademark right, patent right and Anti-Unfair Competition law to protect cartoon character, and then to protect legal interests of right holder and to promote the development of culture attached cartoon character. But considering our copyright law, especially the relevant cases, our law does not see cartoon character as works; even its copyright is accepted, the right is very vague. Even judicial judgments accept its copyright, the remedy is not enough. USA and Japan decision gave cartoon character the copyright protection, and the originality standard was very low, and therefore promoted the culture progress. Our typical cases of cartoon character shows that with the development of technology and commercial market, protecting copyright of cartoon character is very urgent to deal with the infringement.Therefore, perfecting our copyright law to protect cartoon character should provide strong protection to cartoon character. So, our copyright law should see cartoon character as works, and perfect the copy, offering and fair use system. Of course, during the progress of our economic and culture development, the protection of cartoon character also relies on the trademark, patent and Anti-Unfair Competition law, and the justice balances the limit of cartoon character copyright protection.