On October 24, the topic titled "Lingna Belle Online Shopping Overturning Record" was on the hot search. Lingna Belle the Little Fox is the latest member of the Duffy family at Disneyland, and its world premiere at Shanghai Disney Resort on September 29 sparked a frenzy. Many netizens said that they need to queue for 7 hours to buy it. In this wave of rush purchases, pirates also took the opportunity to make a big profit, and they lied about the genuine version and sold it on a large scale.
This scene is familiar, reminiscent of Universal Studios Beijing's words as "Wei Zhentian" after the debut was also quickly "shanzhai". It seems that the current hot IP derivatives are difficult to escape the fate of piracy.
Moreover, from recent examples, it can be seen that the infringement patterns of IP derivatives of theme parks are becoming more and more diverse, and the path of rights protection is unclear. According to media reports, there are still a large number of Lingna Belle imitation sales on some e-commerce platforms, involving dolls, pillows, stickers, key chains, cards and other different types, and the categories even exceed the genuine version, and their prices range from more than ten yuan to hundreds of yuan, and many stores have monthly sales of more than 100 or even 1000. Consumers said that the display pictures used by these stores are consistent with the official, and if they do not receive the courier to see the actual product, they cannot tell whether it is a genuine or imitation.
On September 29, 2021, Lingna Belle the Little Fox officially debuted at Shanghai Disneyland, the first person in the Duffy family to debut at Shanghai Disneyland. Photo: Shanghai Disney's official WeChat
In recent years, the production of pirated cultural and creative derivatives has formed a complete gray industrial chain. Manufacturers are small and decentralized, they do not even need the genuine version as a reference template, only rely on the IP character image can quickly develop, produce a large number of pirated derivatives, through the wholesale market and the Network and other channels to put out shipments, greatly compressing the living space of the genuine.
We can't help but ask, what makes piracy so arrogant?
The problem that cannot be avoided is intellectual property rights. It can be seen that the biggest feature that distinguishes theme park derivatives from ordinary products is that in addition to the commercial use value of theme park derivatives as products, another layer of intrinsic value of theme park derivatives comes from IP.
Take Lingna Belle, for example. It is a character image derived from the IP of Mickey Mouse's friend Duffy. Its peripherals such as toys, daily necessities, etc. are profitable as product lines, and mainly rely on Disney's popularity and influence.
At present, the main application to the resolution of IP derivatives intellectual property disputes is the Copyright Law and the Trademark Law. However, from the perspective of legal subject matter, IP derivative copyright is different from that of general typical copyrights, and the situation is more complicated. However, the existing law does not specifically elaborate on the multiple rights involved in cultural and creative derivatives. This makes it difficult to protect rights, and at the same time leaves a lot of opportunities for pirates to exploit loopholes. This requires the state to legislate in the field of special laws and regulations and strengthen relevant law enforcement practices.
From the perspective of enterprises, theme parks should enhance the awareness of copyright protection and recognize the importance of the maintenance of intangible assets for the development of the live entertainment industry.
After experiencing price increases, distribution, and queues, some netizens directly called: "Is this buying Hermès?" "Figure/IC photo
For high-quality content, the extension of the downstream industry chain is its focus - the important value of IP derivatives is that it not only stays in a one-time copyright transaction, but continuously enlarges the industrial value of IP through countless forms of excavation, thereby generating continuous returns and forming a long-term consumer gold mine.
As a result, enterprises can confirm rights from multiple angles such as patent applications, trademark registrations, and copyrights; for example, they can set up specialized institutions for intellectual property management and choose appropriate methods to effectively manage and protect IP derivatives.
Of course, to strengthen the protection of IP derivatives, we cannot rely on the strength of only one company. From the perspective of the industry, we can refer to some similar practice paths of the cultural industry that have made successful attempts.
For example, in the field of library cultural creation, China's National Library Cultural and Creative Product Development Alliance has built an "Integrated Platform for The Development of Cultural and Creative Products of National Libraries" in 2018. The platform includes a social resource settlement platform, a crowdfunding platform, an online authorization platform, a collaborative design platform, etc., from element extraction to product design to finished product landing.
Its biggest reference for theme parks is that the industry platform helps to build an ecology, establish industry legal resources, and form a unified and professional legal adviser. This ensures that companies with similar infringement experiences can consciously prevent and summarize the legal issues related to the development of IP derivatives before, during and after the event.
Compared with the more mature intellectual property protection system architecture of Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, there is still a long way to go in the protection of real-life entertainment IP derivatives such as theme parks in China. Today, when daily life is aestheticized, cultural and creative IP derivatives will fully penetrate into all fields of people's lives. In the face of such a huge market, whether it is to cultivate consumers' awareness of copyright protection, or in the planning and forward-looking supply of derivatives output, theme parks still have a lot of room for improvement.
Beijing News Commentator 丨Li Xiaoxiao (Media Person)
Editor 丨Chi Daohua
Proofreading 丨 Liu Yue