TV FORMAT PROTECTION THROUGH COPYRIGHT - OPPORTUNITIES AND DILEMMA

TV formats represent popular media content, which attracts a large number of viewers around the world. However, their legal is not regulated enough. The basic dilemma in legal theory and judicial practice is the possibility of copyright protection of TV formats. The aim of this paper is to try to determine the possibility of legal protection of the TV format as an author's work by analyzing domestic and foreign judicial practice, as well as the existing literature. Although some courts have held that a TV format can be protected as a whole, including its technical elements, this is more the exception than the rule. Most of the time, the disputed question comes down to the elements that have been copied, and concerns the basic idea or concept of the TV format. Nevertheless, there is a tendency on the international level towards more and more frequent recognition of copyright protection of TV formats, but under certain conditions. Thus, rarefaction, originality and typed structure of the format that can be repeated, as well as the way of defining the author's work in legislation are some of the elements that influence whether the TV format will be recognized and protected as an author's work.