Intellectual Property Protection Of TV Program Formats In International Trade

TV program format is a fast-developing thing in recent years,thanks to the development of variety TV programs.It's about the process of running TV programs and frameworks,composed of a variety of complex elements.TV program format is ingenious,relatively fixable,reproducible,and economic and cultural dual attributes.In recent years,TV program format,as a new object,is more and more active in the stage of international trade,successful TV program formats are sold all around the world as cultural products.China in recent years has also introduced a large number of TV program formats,led to China's domestic development of the variety shows.The international trade of TV program formats is more and more large-scale,and form the corresponding industrial chain,but due to the "Idea-Expression Dichotomy",the TV program format does not belong to the scope of intellectual property law in theory,and corresponding to this,both at the international treaty level,or China's intellectual property law,the protection of TV program formats is still blank.This not only in conformity with the developing requirements of the TV program format industry,but also contrary to the original intention of intellectual property law legislation.On the one hand,the trade of TV program formats is increasingly frequent,on the other hand the lack of protection of TV program formats in the intellectual property legal system,the contradiction between the industrial development of TV program formats and the lag of the law is becoming more and more prominent.Whether the TV program format shall be protected by intellectual property law,and how to protect it effectively has become a common concern of both the media and the jurisprudence.Whether the TV program format belong to the scope of protection of intellectual property law,different countries have different attitudes,in some countries TV program format can't be brought into the scope of protection of the copyright law,such as Britain,the United States,Germany;Some countries admit that TV program formats should be protected by copyright law,such as the Netherlands,Brazil,Italy,and some countries solve the dispute of TV programs formats through anti-unfair competition law,such as France.In view of the rapid development of TV program formats in international trade and the contradiction of their legal protection,the author explores the intellectual property protection path of TV program formats from two aspects of international law and domestic law,and at the same time,try to give rational proposals to China's TV industry.This paper mainly discuss the legal protection of TV program formats through literature research and case analysis.The article is divided into four parts according to the logic of finding the problem,asking questions,analyzing the problem and solving the problem:The first part discusses the concept of TV program format in international trade,defines the concept of TV program format through the research of domestic and foreign scholars and the definition of related institutions,introduces the characteristics of TV program format as a new thing on the international trade stage and the introduction of our country.The second part analyzes the dilemma of the protection of the TV program format by the intellectual property law: the theoretical roots,limited by the “Idea-Expression Dichotomy”,is excluded from the scope of intellectual property law protection,both in international law and domestic law level face the "vacuum" of legislation.The third part explores the attitude and protection mode of foreign TV program formats through foreign judicial practice.The fourth part discusses the legal protection of TV program format from two aspects of international law and domestic law,and discusses the coping strategies of China's TV industry in the increasingly fierce international competition.