论我国作品角色著作权侵权认定标准的完善

On Improvement of the Criteria for Determination of Infringement on the Copyright of the Characters in a Work

作品角色的保护是一项新型著作权法问题。我国法院已对作品角色提供独立的著作权保护,但在具体保护的认定上,还存在诸多不足。在角色保护标准上,我国法院引入了美国法上的“清晰描绘标准”与“故事被叙说标准”,但这两种标准都具有模糊性,使得保护标准在高低间游走,可以考虑引入“特别显著性标准”,以完善角色保护标准;在角色保护范围的界定上,我国法院常将落入公共领域的角色特征以及典型特征也纳入保护范围,应当将这些不受保护的角色元素进行排除;在角色侵权比对上,我国实践中存在“解剖法”与“普通观察者测试法”两种方法,两者的单独适用可能导向截然不同的结果,造成司法标准不一,应当将这者进行整合,侵权比对时还应当考虑角色的内在特征,以保证侵权比对的准确性。

The protection of the characters in a work represents an issue of a new type of copyright law.Chinese courts have already provided independent copyright protection for the characters in a work,but there are still many defects in the determination of specific protection.First of all,in terms of the criteria for the protection of the characters in a work,Chinese courts have introduced the“clearly delineated standards”and“narrative storytelling standards”from American jurisprudence.However,these two standards are vague,making the protection standards hover between high and low.Chinese courts can consider introducing“distinctiveness standards”to improve protection standards for characters.Secondly,Chinese courts also face problems in defining the protection scope of the characters.Characteristics of the characters in the public domain and typical characteristics are often included into the scope of protection.These unprotected character elements should be excluded.Finally,in terms of comparison of infringements on characters,two methods are practiced in China,namely the“dissection method”and the“ordinary observer test”.The separate application of the two methods may lead to completely different results,resulting in inconsistent judicial standards.Therefore,they should be integrated.Moreover,the inherent characteristics of the characters should also be considered when conducting infringement comparison to ensure acuracy.