아바타의 부정경쟁방지법에 의한 보호

The Protection of Avatar by the Unfair Competition Prevention and Business Secret Protection Act.

The word avatar, meaning incarnation, was derived from two Sanskrit words, 'ava' and 'tru'. In these days, Avatar is a symbol or a graphic design that represents identities of users. As thousands of Internet users begin new lives as 'Avatars' in virtual worlds, new design industries and related business are being born. The design of multi-user graphical virtual environments is one of the most challenging new areas in consumer on-line services. Despite all that wonderful technology, the number one question asked by the lawyer is: how can we protect right of owners? I suggest that rights of owners are should be protected by the general clause in Unfair Competition Prevention and Business Secret Protection Act. Avatar is neither a trademark nor a computer program. Thus, Trademark act and Computer Programs Protection Act cannot be applied. Design Act also cannot be applicable. As Design Act article 2 defines the meaning of design, which is defined as a combination of the shape, pattern, color in an article. To be registered, design must be combined with an article. Avatar is not a real property but a virtual property, so it cannot be registered as a design. However, On-line Digital Contents Protection Law provides method of protection about Avatar. This law provides a solution that who infringes on another person's business interests and inflicts loss on him through trespass, reprint, electrical transmission on digital contents shall be liable to compensate for such loss. But this law leaves much to be desired. It cannot protect interaction between on-line digital contents and off-line contents. I suggest that avatar should be protected by the general clause in Unfair Competition Prevention and Business Secret Protection Act. Now, Unfair Competition Prevention and Business Secret Protection Act prescribes concrete types of the unfairly competitive acts. This law does not provide general clause. It is suggested to enact a general clause. It may solve the problem of violating right of avatar owners.