Investigation On Issues Of Intellectual Property Of Fan Works

Fan works is a new form of creating that has developed in Japan and America severaldecades ago. And with the rapid development of Internet and information technology,fan works would be obtained in every corner of the world. As a result, fan worksbecome popular among countries, even in some developing countries like China.However, the nature of fan works, using the characters and settings of original worksto recreate, would arises some legal disputes during creating and spreading. Differentcountry holds different attitude toward the nature of fan works. On the basis of theconcept and classification of fan works, this article will analyses the cases related fanworks from all over the world and summarizes the causes of legal disputes betweenthe original and fan works. Besides, some possible solutions would be found duringthis process.The conflicts of intellectual property rights between fan works and original works canbe divided into the following two aspects: first, the conflict of copyright between twoof them; second, the trademark right conflict between them. This article will analysesthese conflicts and estimates that whether fan works infringe the rights of originalworks. There are two questions when fan works infringe the rights of original ones:which rights of original woks are violated from fan works? If not, how to certain thelegal status of the fan work?Through analyzing the disputes between fan works and original works, it will behelpful to find,the cause of disputes and to present the adjustment of creation of fanworks that could solve the conflicts between fan works and original works. And itsuggests that Creative Commons could be available to adjust the balance of mutualinterests; or using fair use system to defend the overburden of intellectual propertyrights of original rights holders. Therefore, the disputes between fan works andoriginal works will be solved, which force the cultural dissemination anddevelopment.