Comprehension And Application Of Fan Works Under Anti-unfair Competition Laws And Regulations

In recent years,with the help of Internet technology,fan works have not only shown a trend of vigorous development,but have gradually embarked on the road of commercial publishing.The economic benefits brought by them should not be underestimated,and infringement disputes with the original works have also occurred constantly.In the face of new problems in the field of fan works,the lag of copyright law has emerged.In our judicial practice,we have turned to the anti-unfair competition law to determine the infringement.However,as soon as the judgment came out,the academic community asked whether the anti-unfair competition law could be infringed.It provides supplementary protection for the copyright law.Therefore,studying the application of the anti-unfair competition law in fan works will help solve the problem of infringement judgments of fan works.This article will take two cases of infringement of the works of the same person as the background,and put forward the problem of the difficulty of judging the infringement of the works of the same person in judicial practice.Since the copyright law cannot play a role in the above cases,disputes between fan works and original works do exist and have caused damage to the interests of others.As one of the three major areas of intellectual property law,copyright law involves the largest number of cases and has far-reaching influence.The relationship between anti-unfair competition law and copyright law reflects the relationship between it and intellectual property law.On the basis of the relationship between fair competition law and intellectual property law,this article believes that the anti-unfair competition law is beneficial to compensate for the limitations of the copyright law and provide supplementary protection for the copyright law when the copyright law is difficult to regulate the works of the same person.However,the supplementary protection provided by the anti-unfair competition law to the copyright law is limited.Instead of seeking protection from the anti-unfair competition law when the copyright law cannot function,the Supreme People’s Court of our country has put forward a "limited supplementary protection doctrine" on this issue,but it did not give further definition of the limited boundary of supplementary protection.In order to clarify the applicable boundaries of the anti-unfair competition law in fan works,this article will seek experience from the judicial practice of foreign fan works infringement cases,and learn from the judicial solutions of countries with a long history of fan works such as Japan,the United States and Germany.The German and American "additional factor standards" are used to determine the boundaries of the anti-unfair competition law in the application of fan works.Finally,this article will discuss how the anti-unfair competition law should be applied in fan works.Our country’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law stipulates specific and general provisions for unfair competition.There are two types of specific provisions that can be used to regulate unfair competition of fan works,fan works will be regulated by the anti-unfair competition law when they meet the above applicable conditions of unfair competition.The general provisions of unfair competition conduct need to consider the issue of order when applying,and the general provisions shall be considered after the specific terms are exhausted.Therefore,in judicial practice,the applicable conditions of the general provisions must be strictly grasped.Where the specific provisions have clearly stipulated the conduct of unfair competition,the general provisions shall no longer be applied,otherwise the scope of application of the general clauses will be unduly expanded.