作品元素商品化权益保护研究——以“葵花宝典案”为切入点

Research on the Protection of Merchandising Rights on Work Elements—With “The Book of Kuihua Case” as an Entry Point

摘要: “商品化权益”并非法律概念，却引发诸多纠纷。备受瞩目的“葵花宝典案”几经波折，将作品元素商品化权益之保护问题推上风口浪尖。可商品化的作品元素，包括不构成作品且未注册的角色名称、角色关键语句、作品名称、特定标题、特定物品的名称或代称等。作品元素商品化权益受保护在我国司法实践中逐渐被认可，但路径上仍存争议。实践中商标法“在先权利”条款应用虽广，其本质也是制止不正当竞争行为。相较之下，以混淆理论和不当占用理论作为正当性基础，适用反不正当竞争法进行保护更能实现理论自洽和利益平衡。在商品化权益不正当竞争行为纠纷的法律适用过程中，应先明确混淆条款和一般条款的适用顺序，并遵循以下认定逻辑：在从宽解释“经营者”、“竞争关系”的基础上，借助“混淆可能性”和“反淡化”理论对行为不当性进行认定。

Abstract: “Merchandising rights” is not a legal term, but has led to lots of disputes. After several twists and turns, “The Book of Kuihua Case” brought the controversy over the protection of merchandising rights on work elements, such as names or key phrases of characters, names of works, names or pronouns of other specific terms which do not constitute works and are not registered. Merchan-dising rights on those elements are gradually recognized by our judiciaries, but there are still dis-putes on the protection method. Although the “earlier rights” clause in trademark law was prac-ticed frequently, it is essential to invoke the Anti-unfair competition law sometimes. The theory of confusion and misappropriation could be the basis of legitimacy, so that the application of An-ti-unfair competition law can achieve more theoretical self-consistency and dynamic protection. Specifically, the confusion clause should be applied prior to the general one, in which the “manager” and “competitive relation” shall be ulteriorly redefined and the misconduct shall be determined on the combination of likelihood of confusion or dilution theory.