Research On Intellectual Property Protection Of Television Program Formats

In recent years,with the popularity of TV programs such as < The Voice of China >,disputes concerning copyright,trademark rights,and unfair competition of television programs have been increasing.At the same time,the issue of the protection of television program format has been widely debated in TV media and legal circles.Although the judicial jurisprudence of most countries at home and abroad excludes the protection of television program format by copyright law,the copyright law of our country clearly recognizes the television program format as an idea and excludes it from its protection scope.But whether television program format belongs toideas or expression,whether it should be protected by copyright law has never stopped.There are many scholars in the legal profession who believe that electricity The essence of television program format is expression,and because of its originality and replicability,it is the object protected by copyright law-work,protected by copyright law.Or even if it does not have the constituent elements of "work",copyright law should expand the scope of protection and regard it as "work",so as to bring it into the scope of protection of copyright law.According to the dichotomy of ideas and expressiontelevision program format is not the object protected by copyright law and should not be protected by copyright law.Based on the characteristic of television program format,the standard of copyright law to judge the infringement of it is difficult to be sure.Therefore,expanding the protection scope of copyright law to include television program formatcan not really achieve the purpose of effective protection,but also violate the legislative purpose of copyright law.Therefore,this paper suggests that we should follow the essential attribute of television program format and adopt other means other than copyright law to protect it.