Behind the box office of the"Ne Zha"series exceeding ten billion yuan,"Ne Zha:Birth of the Demon Child"and"Ne Zha:Revenge of the Sea"have achieved remarkable box office results."Ne Zha 2"officially topped the box office chart in Chinese film history on February 6th and exceeded 10 billion yuan in box office on February 13th.Its overseas release has also been gradually scheduled in multiple countries around the world,receiving a warm response in North America and Canada."Ne Zha"has become a phenomenon-level big IP,and it has set an exemplary model worthy of learning for the entire film and television industry in terms of intellectual property protection.

I.The IP Moat of"Ne Zha:Birth of the Demon Child":Building a Comprehensive and Multi-level Protection System

In 2019,"Ne Zha 1"refreshed the record of domestic animated films with a box office of 5 billion yuan.However,what is little known is that the intellectual property protection layout behind it can be regarded as a textbook-level case of the commercialization of domestic film and television IP.

(1)Copyright Confirmation:Full-chain Protection from"Script"to"Pixel"

At the beginning of the film's approval,Enlight Media,the producer of"Ne Zha 1",completed the systematic registration of core intellectual property rights:For the script and storyboard,the copyright of the script and storyboard was registered through the China Copyright Protection Center to clarify the ownership of rights;For the character images,the copyright of fine art works was applied for the character setting diagrams and 3D modeling data of core characters such as Ne Zha and Ao Bing;For the technical achievements,some of the technical solutions related to more than 1,600 special effect shots developed in the animation production applied for software copyright and technical secret protection.

(2)Trademark Defense:More than 200 Trademarks Build a Commercialization Firewall

According to public data,Enlight Media launched trademark registration three months before the film's release in 2019.

It covered more than 30 of the 45 international classifications,and the key layout was as follows:

Core defense categories:Category 9(Digital Products),Category 16(Stationery),Category 25(Clothing),Category 28(Toys)and other high-frequency derivative categories;

Long-term layout categories:Category 41(Theme Parks),Category 35(Commercial Franchise)and other potential commercialization scenarios;

Keyword interception:Registered trademarks of lines such as"Birth of the Demon Child"and"My fate is determined by myself,not by the heavens"and their English translation names to prevent preemptive registration.

(3)Derivative Product Authorization:Lock the IP Value Chain with"Contracts"

The sales of derivatives of"Ne Zha 1"exceeded 120 million yuan.Its success is inseparable from a strict authorization management system.The infringement rate of domestic film and television IP derivatives has been over 60%for a long time.The contract restraint+technical monitoring model of"Ne Zha 1"has provided a compliance sample for the industry.

Hierarchical authorization:Divide the partners into first-level authorized merchants(Mona Studio,a figurine manufacturer)and second-level distributors,and clarify the sales channels and geographical restrictions;

Quality control:The contract stipulates that the design of derivatives needs to be reviewed by the copyright owner to prevent the distortion of the image.For example,an infringing party was sued for unauthorized production of the"Darkened Ne Zha";

Dynamic monitoring:Trace the authorized products through blockchain technology,and jointly remove more than 3,000 pirated products from e-commerce platforms.

(4)Anti-piracy Offensive:Double-track Sniping by Law and Technology

During the film's release,the producer took a"textbook-style"anti-piracy combination punch.Under the combined defense of"preventive justice+technical prevention and control",the spread of pirated resources of"Ne Zha"decreased by 72%compared with films in the same period.

In terms of technology,DRM digital watermark technology was adopted to accurately locate the leakage nodes of pirated film sources;In terms of judicial and administrative aspects,a copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against pirated websites,with a maximum compensation of 500,000 yuan in a single case.At the same time,an application was submitted to the National Copyright Administration to be included in the"List of Key Works for Copyright Protection Early Warning",triggering active monitoring across the entire network.

II.The IP Layout Upgrade of"Ne Zha:Revenge of the Sea":From Defense to Ecological Operation

"Ne Zha 2"has already sparked anticipation across the entire network before its release,and now its box office has reached 10 billion yuan,refreshing many records and going global.Its intellectual property layout not only inherits the experience of the previous work but also needs to deal with the challenges brought by new business forms and technologies.Based on the experience of the previous work,the following optimization trends in the IP protection of"Ne Zha 2"have emerged:

(1)Dual Protection of Patents and Copyrights

Chengdu Coco Cartoon and Chengdu Free Realm Culture,two companies closely related to Director Jiaozi,respectively hold 490 and 190 copyrights.They have carried out granular copyright confirmation from"works"to"elements",with the following characteristics:(1)The character elements are split for protection.In addition to the overall film copyright registration,new elements such as"Ne Zha's new battle armor"and"the scene design of the Deep Sea Dragon Palace"are separately registered as fine art works to avoid disputes caused by unclear ownership of details during derivative development;(2)Dynamic content confirmation.For innovative special effect shots such as"Primordial Spirit Fusion"exposed in the trailer,the creative process is archived through blockchain technology to strengthen the proof of prior rights.

In addition,the two producing companies have publicly disclosed 11 appearance patents related to character dolls,such as the characters of the little Taoist priest and the shrimp attacking the city.These patents play a key role in the development of peripheral products and are conducive to maximizing the commercial value of the IP.In the future,on the basis of fully protecting the IP,active commercial operations can be carried out.Through reasonable authorization,cooperation,etc.,vigorously develop peripheral products of film and television IPs and conduct joint cooperation,etc.They submitted the application on April 22,2024,and received the authorization announcement at the end of last year.This means that without authorization,others cannot produce peripheral products similar in appearance to these patented products,effectively preventing infringement during the development of peripheral products and effectively protecting the commercial interests of the producers.

(2)Trademark Layout in Advance before the Release

In 2019,"Ne Zha 1"became a huge hit.However,due to the negligence of the early trademark layout,pirated derivatives flooded like mushrooms after rain after the film's release.Although the producer,Beijing Enlight Pictures Co.,Ltd.,made emergency remedies later and registered more than 1,800 related trademarks,it had already missed the public screening dividend period at this time.The derivative product market had already been flooded with a large number of pirated products,and the revenue from genuine derivatives was far from reaching the expected amount,which brought huge economic losses to the producer.

Learning from the painful lesson of"Ne Zha 1",Enlight Media quickly launched the trademark protection action during the preparation stage of"Ne Zha:Revenge of the Sea".In August 2022,31 trademarks of"Revenge of the Sea"were applied for,and in June 2023,77 trademarks of"Ne Zha:Revenge of the Sea"were applied for.Most of them have been approved for registration.From"defensive registration"to"scenario pre-embedding",categories related to the metaverse have been added,and new trademarks such as Category 9(VR Equipment),Category 41(Virtual Performances),and Category 42(NFT Platform)have been added to cover metaverse derivative scenarios;International registration,applications for foreign trademarks such as"NEZHA:REVENGE OF THE SEA"have been submitted in target markets such as Southeast Asia and North America to pave the way for global IP operation.

From 2019 to now,Enlight Pictures has applied for a total of 2,192 word and graphic trademarks of the Ne Zha series,and 2,094 of them have been successfully registered,covering all 45 categories of the Nice Classification.The core categories include stationery,furniture,kitchenware,etc.Such a comprehensive trademark layout enables the"Ne Zha"IP to be effectively protected by trademarks in all commercial fields,laying a solid foundation for subsequent commercial development.No matter what type of derivative products are developed,the integrity of trademark rights can be ensured.

(3)Technical Prevention and Control:Digital Watermark and Monitoring System

In addition to using traditional legal means for IP protection,the film producer has also actively introduced advanced technical means.Through the digital watermark technology of embedding a unique identifier into the character image,once infringing content is found,the source can be quickly traced with the help of technical means,providing strong evidence support for rights protection.This technical measure fully complies with the protection requirements of"rights management information"in Article 49 of the Copyright Law,further strengthening the boundaries of rights,making it easier to detect and hold infringing acts accountable.At the same time,with the real-time monitoring system,it is possible to conduct real-time monitoring of infringing acts on the Internet and take effective measures in a timely manner to stop the infringement,comprehensively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the film IP.AI-driven anti-piracy sniping,using AI content fingerprint technology,conducts real-time monitoring of short video platforms,can identify film picture clips and automatically initiate a removal complaint(the infringement response time in the test stage is shortened to 2 hours).

III.Lawyers'Suggestions:Film and Television IP Protection Must Adhere to the"Four Musts"+"Offense and Defense Transformation"

The success of the"Ne Zha"series of films is by no means accidental.It is inseparable from its wonderful content and excellent production,and even more inseparable from a sound IP protection strategy.Through careful layout in copyright,patents,trademarks,etc.,and the effective assistance of technical means,an indestructible commercial barrier has been built for the"Ne Zha"IP,achieving a double harvest of box office and commercial value.

(1)The"Four Musts"of Film and Television IP Protection

●Must lay out in advance:Launch the IP protection plan during the project planning period to avoid the situation of"becoming a huge hit after release and being preemptively registered everywhere";

●Must adopt three-dimensional defense:Build a moat from multiple dimensions such as copyright,trademarks,patents,and trade secrets;

●Must conduct dynamic management:Establish an infringement monitoring mechanism and make good use of tools such as electronic evidence preservation and blockchain to fix evidence;

●Must carry out ecological cooperation:Form a joint defense mechanism with e-commerce platforms and industry associations to reduce the cost of rights protection.

(2)The"Offense and Defense Transformation"of Film and Television IPs

The competition of film and television IPs has shifted from"legal defense"to"ecological operation".It is recommended that practitioners focus on:

●Dynamic rights confirmation:Register copyrights in batches according to the creative process to avoid the breakage of the rights ownership chain due to content iteration;

●Agreement toolbox:Customize authorization contract templates for new scenarios such as live streaming with goods and virtual endorsements;

●Global joint defense:Layout trademarks through international treaties such as the Madrid Agreement and crack down on overseas piracy with the help of the DMCA mechanism;

●Technology+law coordination:Incorporate blockchain evidence preservation and AI monitoring into the standard rights protection process to reduce the cost of evidence collection.

Conclusion

In the era where content is king,a"blockbuster"lacking in intellectual property layout will eventually become a shooting star in commercial value.When the rise of domestic animation has become a general trend,only by implanting legal thinking into the creative gene can Chinese stories truly be transformed into sustainable cultural assets.