Der urheber- und lauterkeitsrechtliche Schutz fiktiver Figuren

The capitalisation of fictional characters has been a mass business not only since the inflationary rise of superhero film adaptations. The commercialisation of characters is therefore correspondingly attractive for imitators. This work examines the protectability of characters from the perspective of copyright and unfair competition law and, in this context, addresses the question of the extent to which the principles developed can be applied to living characters. Finally, an approach is developed that can be used to categorise cases in which the boundary between a real person and a fictional character becomes blurred.