The Commercialized Rights And Interests Of Work Names

Commercialization of work names refers to the process of applying these kinds of names to commercial activities and seeking market benefits.For example,"Pig Pecs","Kung Fu Panda","Harry Potter HaLiBoTe" and other work names and role names which can be used as trademarks,business names and other commercial use and can obtain additional economic benefits because of their strong attraction to the public.Rules on Handling Several Issues about Administrative Cases regarding Grant and Validation of Trademarks clearly stipulate the rights and interests of commercialization prior to the names of works with high popularity,which is the first attempt to commercialized rights and interests.This paper analysis administrative judgment of Beijing Intellectual Property Court(hereinafter referred to as “Sunflower Bible case”),and then based on the analysis and summary of 24 judicial cases,it discusses the development of the attitude of judicial practice to the protection of work names,and then demonstrates the legal basis of the legitimacy of the protection of them.And within the existing legal framework,this paper puts forward some suggestions on the scope and standard of protection of work names,expecting to have a positive impact on the judicial protection of commercialized rights and interests of our country.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper mainly includes the following six parts:The first part briefly introduces the basic situation of the “Sunflower Bible” case,in which the focus of the case is analyzed--Whether the registration of "Sunflower Bible " as a trademark violates Article 31 of the Trademark Law of 2001,which stipulates that the application for a registered trademark shall not impair the existing rights of others.The second part explains the nature of the right to commercialize the title of a work,the author clarifies the relevant elements of its right composition.At the same time,on the basis of defining the concept of rights,this paper analyses the nature of rights in the commercialization of works' names.The third part discusses the legitimacy to commercialize the title of a work from three theoretical bases: labor value theory,benefit theory and market confusion theory.It points out that it is proper to protect the rights of commercialization of works' names in trademark law and anti-unfair competition law.The fourth part analyses the development of our judicial practice's attitude to the protection of work names.According to the judicial judgments on the work names in China,the attitude of judicial protection in China can be divided into six aspects:non-protection—public order and moral-protection—anti-unfair competition law-protection—merchandised rights and interests in the Confirmation of trademark-protection—right-clear provisions of judicial interpretation-protection.The fifth part is aiming at the existing legal system which includes the Article 6 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and Article 32 of the Trademark Law.This paper explores whether the existing law can fully protect the commercialized right of work names to a certain extent without creating the new right of “commercialization”.The sixth part puts forward some suggestions on the construction of the system for the protection of the commercialized rights and interests of the names of works and roles.Within the framework of existing laws,regulations and judicial interpretation,how to use existing laws to protect the commercialized rights and interests of work names and role names,so as to further define the scope and standards of their protection.