Are game show formats in Vietnam protected by copyright?

TV recreation reveals play an necessary function within the Vietnamese leisure trade, as within the international market. Many well-known recreation reveals from different international locations have been franchised or licensed for broadcast in Vietnam, together with ‘Who Needs to Be a Millionaire?’, ‘Vietnam’s Received Expertise’, and ‘The Voice’, drawing massive audiences and producing billions of VND from commercialised actions. 

Different standard reveals have been developed domestically – some wholly unique, however many bearing a heavy resemblance to current reveals from different markets, with related gameplay, related units, and even related names.

This raises an fascinating query from the mental property perspective as as to if homeowners or creators of recreation reveals can cost these copycat reveals with infringement. In different phrases, are format rights recognised as a copyright and may a recreation present be protected underneath mental property regulation? 

Globally, it is a query and not using a clear and specific reply. The Format Recognition and Safety Affiliation (FRAPA), a commerce affiliation fashioned in 2000 to advocate recognition of tv codecs as mental property, strongly believes that format rights are protectable and has been working to persuade courts and lawmakers around the globe to outline these rights underneath regulation. Nonetheless, recognition of format rights continues to be very restricted, and is commonly decided on a case-by-case foundation. 

A standard argument from authorized consultants is that as a result of the format of a recreation present is barely composed of concepts, which aren’t protected by regulation, it can’t be the topic of copyright (for reference, Inexperienced v Broadcasting Company of New Zealand in 1989). Nonetheless, others argue that if the format of a recreation present is an mental creation and incorporates key components which have distinctive originality, and it isn’t only a mixture of normal and commonplace components, it may be protected underneath copyright regulation (for reference, Meakin v BBC [2010] EWHC 2065).

Format rights in Vietnam

Vietnam’s IP Regulation doesn’t stipulate any safety of codecs and there aren’t any provisions on infringement and enforcement of format rights. In different phrases, format rights haven’t but been recognised in Vietnam. Nonetheless, it’s believed {that a} recreation present can nonetheless be individually protected underneath the IP Regulation by way of copyright for (i) literary works for the scripts; and (ii) dramatic works for the ‘expression’ of the sport present on stage (together with the idea, construction, studio and lighting design, guidelines, and so forth.).

The IP Regulation doesn’t require copyright homeowners/authors to register their works (on this context, the literary work or the dramatic work) however it’s a really useful and straightforward solution to show the possession of a copyrighted work to be able to forestall potential infringement. 

Evaluation of copyright infringement between recreation reveals

Though there’s a solution to partially shield the copyright of a recreation present, relating to a declare of copyright infringement, it’s much more sophisticated, particularly when the worldwide leisure trade has created and televised a whole bunch of recreation reveals with many options and components in frequent.

To determine copyright infringement, together with for literary works and dramatic works, there are a minimum of three standards to contemplate: originality, the similarity of the disputed works, and the willfulness of the alleged infringer. 

Originality may be troublesome to show. Many recreation reveals fall into recognisable classes with related concepts and buildings, like quiz reveals or expertise contests. For instance, most singing competitions, just like the ‘Idol’ and ‘The Voice’ franchises, have contestants display their abilities on stage, after which the panelists/judges give feedback and scores, and contestants are eradicated from spherical to spherical till a championship or grand finale finds a winner of the present. When a recreation present’s format has these quite common components, it’s laborious to assert they provide the present originality. And although every recreation present is an interactive occasion the place the members have the liberty to behave and remark past any prewritten script, it’s uncertain that such appearing and reacting could make the entire recreation present unique.

Discerning the similarities between disputed recreation reveals can also be necessary when contemplating whether or not an allegedly infringing present is a duplicate or a spinoff work of the sooner present. To this extent, it’s essential to establish whether or not the same components are important to the entire present or simply coincidental. For instance, each ‘Who Needs to Be a Millionaire?’ and ‘Rồng Vàng’ (a well-liked recreation present in Vietnam from 2003 to 2007, licensed from a Thai present) have related components and buildings whereby a single contestant tackles a collection of multiple-choice, general-knowledge inquiries to win a big money prize, and may consult with household and mates to seek out the reply.

A viewer of each reveals will surely recognise a resemblance and may confuse one for the opposite. Nonetheless, to our information, no infringement go well with was ever pursued, doubtless as a result of originality difficulty. The weather that have been most related have been frequent and even inherent to the quiz present style, whereas the weather that have been arguably probably the most distinctive – akin to the quantity of the money prize, a key factor of the ‘Millionaire’ model –  have been totally different.

Lastly, the claimant should show that the infringer willfully copied the copyrighted work in query. It’s potential to show this not directly by exhibiting that the unique work was created, revealed, or registered earlier than the copycat, and that the infringer ought to have identified that its work might harm the claimant’s rights. 

Conclusion

Whereas Vietnam’s IP Regulation doesn’t expressively present copyright safety for recreation reveals, it’s clear {that a} recreation present can not directly be protected by way of its literary works and/or dramatic works. Nonetheless, it isn’t straightforward to implement the copyright of a recreation present in apply as a result of within the leisure trade, there’s a blurred line between copyright infringement and the similarity of concepts amongst recreation reveals. Thus, one should rigorously consider and assess the present’s originality and the similarity between the disputed recreation reveals, and the willfulness of the infringer. Solely when all the standards are happy can we are saying that there’s a copyright infringement of the sport present.

Trung Nguyen

IP director of HCMC Department, T&G Regulation Agency LLC (TGVN), native affiliate agency of Tilleke & Gibbins

Phuong Thuy Nguyen

Affiliate, T&G Regulation Agency LLC (TGVN), native affiliate agency of Tilleke & Gibbins

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