Analysis on the legal protection of merchandising rights in characters

The case of cartoon character “San Mao” triggers broad debates on merchandising right in fictional characters within the academic circle of intellectual property law. For lack of explicit legal provisions and theoretical supports, the final judgments of such cases may be unfair or inconsistent. By introduction to the origin of the merchandising right in fictional characters and the practice of its protection in the US, this paper holds that China shall learn from the US comprehensive protection mode in practice, give consideration to its protection standard formed in its case law, research typical cases and, if necessary, establish the standard on protection of the merchandising right in fictional characters by judicial interpretations.