Research On The Legal Protection Of Fictional Characters

In the process of writing works,the author usually creates some characters with distinctive characteristics to promote the development of the story.With the rapid development of Chinese cultural industry and the rise of IP economy,the artistic value and economic value of the fictional characters themselves have become greater,and more and more characters have been used separately from the restrictions of the literature,which leads to the infringement disputes over the fictional characters have become increasingly frequent in recent years.The fictional character is an important part of literature,which is the intellectual achievement of the author's hard work.If the character is used without the authorization of the author,it will inevitably damage the interests of the character creator and his enthusiasm for creation,and cause the dispute between the role user and the creator.In order to balance the interests of creators,users and the public,it is necessary to protect the fictional characters systematically and comprehensively.However,the existing copyright law in our country provides the indirect protection of the fictional characters in the form of the whole work,which has a big limitation in the current infringement dispute of the characters.Besides,in judicial practice,there are some limitations in the way that some courts protect the fictional characters by using trademark law and antiunfair competition law.According to the different ways of using the fictional characters in the field of literary and artistic re-creation and the field of business,different ways of protecting characters can be given in this paper.In the field of literary and artistic re-creation,the use of fictional characters after creation is closely related to the copyright of the owner of the characters,so the use of characters in literary creation should still play the role of copyright law.On the one hand,the fictional characters should be covered in the works.On the other hand,the use of the fictional characters' name is regulated by defining the combined use of the characters' name and the text element as copyright infringement.However,in the commercial field,the use of the fictional characters is often difficult to meet the basic standards required for copyright protection.Therefore,it is necessary to break through the barrier of copyright protection of the fictional characters and the protection of the fictional characters can be realized through the separation and fixation of the role,the introduction of role commercialization right system and the establishment of guiding cases with reference effect.This paper provides suitable solutions to the dispute of the fictional characters,and safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of the right holder of a character role,so as to promote the prosperity and development of Chinese literature,art and commercial market.