3.

0 CASE ANALYSES: THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES

3.1 China’s International Participation in Intellectual Property Protection

As this essay mentioned in the section 2.1, nowadays we are facing the globalization

of intellectual protection, and Olympic Games can be served as a good example to

highlight the intellectual property protection on Global scale. And from the

presentation of China’s Intellectual Property Laws system at section 2 mentioned

China is already an active player at the worldwide intellectual protection campaign.

To some extent, participations in international Intellectual Protection is a pledge to

host the Olympic Games which is considered to be the most internationalized sports

event.

China have joined almost all the major organizations of Intellectual Property

Protection: the World Intellectual Property Organization; Berne Convention for

Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (copyright); Universal Copyright

Convention; Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property(patent and

trade mark);Patent Cooperation Treaty; Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of

Intellectual Property Rights and Madrid Agreement for the International Registration

of Trademarks.
The existing China Intellectual Property Protection Laws already provides a

satisfactory level of protection to the distinctive Olympic elements. However, the

Chinese authorities are keen to make more efforts to guarantee that all uses of

Olympic property are under supervision in regard of the requirements by the Olympic

Charter and the Host City Contract.

3.2 The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games-specific intellectual property protections

Ambush Marketing is “planned effort(campaign) by an organization to associate itself

indirectly with an event in order to gain at least some of the recognition and benefits

that is associated with being an official sponsor” 7 .The Chinese authorities seriously

recognized the problem and developed laws and non-law enforcement methods to

tackle Olympic ambush marketing. Firstly, let us examine the enormous efforts

towards the legislation to protect the Olympic property.

The Protection of Olympic Intellectual Property Rights Provisions came into effect on

1 November 2001 to strengthen the protection of Olympic intellectual property and to

support the development of Olympic Movement. The Provisions identify the rights of

various Olympic intellectual rights owners like the IOC, COC (Chinese Olympic

7 7 : JK Schmitz, ‘Ambush Marketing: The Off-Field Competition at the Olympic

Games’, Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, vol. 3, no.
2, Spring 2005, pp. 203-208
Committee).The Provisions also identify acts which constitute infringement and any

acts assisting such infringement. In Kenny K.S.Wong’s paper（2002）,he argues that

“the Provisions seem to be based on the premise that all entities should safeguard

Olympic-related intellectual property and they require advertisers, advertising agents

and publishers to verify any authorization to use Olympic-related intellectual

property. ”

The Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols (Regulations) also came into

force on 1 April, 2002.The Regulations strictly define rights for the Rights-holders,

especially the names, emblems and symbols of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The

Regulations also set up the definition of commercial purposes which includes using

the Olympic property in goods, service, advertising ,selling or manufacturing

purposes.8 Any use of the Olympic property shall be permitted by the authorities –in-

charge in regard of the Olympic Charter and the Host City Contract. The Regulations

clearly state if any party engages in activities that infringe the rights of the Olympic

property, the dispute should be firstly resolved by the mediation. As long as the

mediation fails to resolve the dispute, the case will be directed to the Administrative

Department for Industry and Commerce or the rights holder can bring an action in the

court. As a result, there may be injunctions, confiscation, destroying infringed

products and relevant tools ordered by the court. Any party that use unauthorized use

8 8 The Regulations on Protection of Olympics Symbols, People’s Republic of

China, art. 5 ,2005
of Olympic property may have to pay the fine of five times of the illegal gains or up

to 50,000 RMB yuan. The Regulations has also confirmed that Administrative

Department for Industry and Commerce has the power to investigate the Olympic –

specific intellectual property infringement, seize funds and levy fines. The

Regulations are supposed to incorporate with the Olympic Charter, Host City

Contract, and Criminal Procedure Law of China, Customs Law of China and the

copyright ,trademark ,patent law laws.

According these regulations, the China Customs should protect Olympic property at

the import or export process. The China Customs are to safeguard the legal interest of

intellectual property rights holders and to combat intellectual property rights

infringement. The China Customs has established a series of rules and provisions with

cooperation with the Beijing Organizing Committee. “Since the Regulations were

promulgated, the Customs has seized over a hundred of shipments infringing the

exclusive rights of Olympic symbols at border” said the China Customs. The

Customs’ efforts built a sound legal environment for the 2008 Beijing Olympic

Games and wins high evaluation from the International Olympic Committee and

Beijing Organizing Committee.

3.3 Non-law Enforcement Methods

To tackle the unauthorized use of Olympic property, especially the ambush marketing,

there were non-law enforcement methods employed to meet the goal On July 2008,the

BOCOG’s marketing department and the Chinese Advertising Association jointly

issued an official “Anti-Ambush Advertising Initiative” in which urges advertising

companies and practitioners to support business ethics. The BOCOG hoped to

received supports from advertising companies and practitioners although the Initiative

is just a moral compass without the power of enforcement.

Meanwhile, the BOCOG worked in conjunction with local councils to control the

outdoor advertisings .During the Games, the advertising near the Olympic venues

were under strictly supervision. It is not enough to solely rely on intellectual laws and

regulations ,the adoption of legal non-law enforcement methods to protect Olympic

property to a maximum.9

The non-law enforcement methods also include control of large events. All the non-

Olympic related events were forbidden if and only if the event with the approval from

BOCOG. This method would be also considered to increase the security level.

There were staff at the entrance check points to stop people who were wearing

uniforms or clothes with a company’s name or logo.

9 9 Harry Yang, ‘Non-law enforcement methods to tackle Olympic ambush

marketing’, China IP, Issue24,June,2008
4.0 CONCLUSION

This essay has provided basic overview of the Chinese law system, especially the

intellectual property law as well as the Olympic-specific intellectual property

protections for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games from the law and non-law enforcements.

No doubt, China’s Olympic intellectual property protections are timely and effective.

However, China should continue and increase their efforts to make intellectual

property a primary responsibility of the entire China management team not just legal

counsel. Everyone needs to buy into the importance of such protection. 10 In addition,

China should strengthen the current Olympic-specific intellectual property rights

protections system, for example, more allocation of human resources and financial

resources to educate their staff, the regional authorities.

10 10 Kuan-Hua Wang, ‘Olympic Games and Intellectual Property:China’s chance to

tell the world more…’,CASRIP Newsletter,Vol.15,Issue 2,Summer 2008