Intellectual Property Rights In Movie / Comic Characters

Introduction

From being created in comics to being incorporated in television and movies, characters like Iron Man, Hulk, Mickey Mouse, ChottaBheem, Shaktiman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, Ben 10 have become a part of our daily lives. With these fictional characters gaining immense popularity among the public, the owners and creators of the characters have various ways of deriving profits and goodwill out of it.

The creator of these characters use their imagination, skill and intellect while creating them and providing them with their unique identity and hence, such characters needprotection from being infringed, misappropriated or copied by any unauthorised person. With characters like ChachaChoudhary and Sabu being popular even today within the age group of 25-30 years¹ and particularly ChottaBheem merchandising has totalled its revenue to more than Rs.300 Crores, with more than 40 million Indian viewers and huge markets abroad².