Intellectual Property Law System Between Korea and Thailand: Focus on the Copyright Protection of Characters

The incorporation of the substantial provisions of the Berne Convention 1886 to the TRIPS Agreement the late 20th Century underlines the widespread recognition of the importance of copyright in international trade. It is crucial for individual countries, particularly WTO members, to ensure legal protection for copyright at the domestic level, regardless of where the works were created. The requirement that the copyright protection shall be conferred to the creative works (such as novels, films, cartoon books, animations, and video games) themselves is generally acknowledged by all members of the WTO. However, it appears that there has not yet been an international consensus on the requirement that the copyright protection should be made available for individual characters separately from the creative works themselves. This issue remains highly ambiguous. Thailand and Korea, being WTO members, are obligated to provide legal protection for the creative works. However, the legal approaches to copyright protection for characters differ between these two countries. Korea has a defined stance on protecting individual characters, whereas Thailand currently lacks a clear approach in this regard. This article aims to analyze and compare the copyright protection granted to characters in these two jurisdictions.