Batman forever? The economics of overlapping rights

Alexander Cuntz and Franziska Kaiser

No 61, WIPO Economic Research Working Papers from World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division

Abstract: When copyrighted comic characters are also protected under trademark laws, intellectual property (IP) rights can be overlapping. Arguably, registering a trademark can increase transaction costs for cross-media uses of characters, or it can help advertise across multiple sales channels. In an application to book, movie and video game publishing industries, we thus ask how creative reuse (innovation in uses) is affected in situations of overlapping rights, and whether ‘fuzzy boundaries’ of right frameworks are in fact enhancing or decreasing content sales.

Keywords: Copyright; fictional characters; trademark; reuse; comic books (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O34 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10
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