Research On Intellectual Property Protection For Virtual Characters

Virtual characters mostly refer to the virtual art images created in literature,movies,animation,games and other works.Virtual characters are often part of a work,but in the process of widespread dissemination,a classic virtual character is deeply rooted in people’s hearts because of its unique appearance,expression,movement,voice and other elements,and may even have a more lasting life than the work that portrays the virtual character and can generate greater economic value.In China’s intellectual property protection system,there are no provisions to protect virtual characters,and in judicial practice,virtual characters are protected by the Copyright Law,Trademark Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law,which have a certain effect on virtual characters,but there are many limitations.The copyright law can only protect virtual characters through "works",the trademark law only protects virtual characters registered as trademarks,and the protection of virtual characters by the anti-unfair competition law can only play the role of the bottom line of the law when the first two laws cannot meet people’s expectation.Based on the above-mentioned actual situation,some scholars propose to establish "commercialization right" to protect virtual characters,while some oppose this approach.In this paper,we agree to protect the intellectual property rights of virtual characters according to the existing legal protection system.However,there are still many shortcomings in the current legal protection system for virtual characters in China,and in judicial practice,when virtual character infringement cases are encountered,there are often different judgments in the same case,controversial results or no protection.In view of this situation,the best solution now is to take into account China’s national conditions,absorb the successful experience of foreign IPR countries in protecting the IPR of virtual characters,and provide more effective and better IPR protection for China’s virtual characters on the basis of the existing IPR legal system.This paper suggests that,firstly,the protection of virtual characters under copyright law should be improved,such as including virtual characters in the scope of protection under copyright law,reasonably stipulating the protection period for virtual characters,clarifying the criteria for determining infringement under copyright law,and establishing a unified protection standard;Secondly,the protection of trademark law should be improved,such as simplifying the registration procedure of trademarks,expanding the scope of trademark registration,and improving the trademark defense system,etc.;Finally the protection content of the anti-unfair competition law should be enriched,such as clarifying the boundary of the anti-unfair competition law regulation,expanding the interpretation of the subjects adjusted,expanding the scope of unfair competition,and clarifying the principle of no-fault responsibility,etc.