The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX
Olympiad (BOCOG) Wednesday pledged to work harder alongside the
relevant authorities to protect the intellectual property rights of
the 2008 Olympic Games logo.
Since the logo was launched on August 3, some T-shirts using the
logo without the committee's authorization have been found in
Beijing, according to sources with the Beijing Municipal
Administration of Industry and Commerce.
Liu Yan, vice-director of the committee's legal affairs
department, told a press conference Wednesday: "We will continue to
assist the industry and commerce authorities and the customs
authorities to seize unauthorized goods that are using the Olympic
emblem illegally."
Sources said that, by Tuesday, Beijing's market watchdog had
seized 134 items of clothing that were illegally using the emblem
in Beijing clothes markets such as the Xiushui or Silk Market. The
goods were confiscated and fines of up to five times the illegal
income were collected.
However, the organizing committee said 58,000 authorized
T-shirts have been produced since August 3 for the Beijing market
but no sales figures were available.
The local industry and commerce authorities will carry out
special inspections this week of shops, printing companies, tourist
sites and advertisements in an attempt to protect the Olympic
logo's intellectual property rights.
The organizing committee announced early this month that no
organization could use the logo for business purposes without the
committee's permission.
The committee registered the Olympic logo as a trademark on the
Chinese mainland in May and in the Hong Kong and Macao special
administrative regions earlier this month.
The International Olympic Committee -- the final owner of the
logo's property rights -- has registered the logo in all other
parts of the world.
Liu of the committee's legal affairs department said: "BOCOG
will determine the liability of those who violate the logo's
intellectual property rights in those regions (outside the Chinese
mainland, Hong Kong and Macao) jointly with the IOC.''
At Wednesday's press conference, Yuan Bin, the organizing
committee's deputy chief of marketing, said that the committee will
promote a greater variety of souvenirs with the Olympic logo in
addition to the current array of stamps, souvenir badges, T-shirts
and maps, which have been sold in limited quantities since August 3
and have had a very good market response.
(People’s Daily August 14, 2003)